lingua

[ling-gwuh]

noun

plural

linguae 

1. the tongue or a part like a tongue.

lingua

/ ˈlɪŋɡwə /

noun

1. the technical name for tongue

2. any tongue-like structure

Word History and Origins

Origin of lingua¹

1665–75; < Latin; akin to tongue

Word History and Origins

Origin of lingua¹

C17: Latin

Example Sentences

It’s the kind of zippy, immersive crime thriller that reminds you of the international lingua franca that Scorsese all but invented with “Goodfellas.”

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Somalia is to introduce Swahili, the lingua franca of East Africa, to its national curriculum, the president has announced.

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It’s not a matter of if but when: I live in a majority Latino city, near a Latino supermarket on a street where the lingua franca is Spanish.

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Sport was the exception to the rule that all things American were the world’s cultural lingua franca.

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The talk was in Spanish, an unremarkable fact given the language has been the lingua franca on most construction sites in Southern California for decades.

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