linguist

American  

[ling-gwist] / ˈlɪŋ gwɪst /

noun

linguists plural

1. a specialist in linguistics.

2. a person who is skilled in several languages; polyglot.

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linguist British  

/ ˈlɪŋɡwɪst /

noun

1. a person who has the capacity to learn and speak foreign languages

2. a person who studies linguistics

3. the spokesman for a chief

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• linguists
  plural

Etymology

Origin of linguist

First recorded in 1580–90; from Latin lingu(a) “tongue, speech” + -ist

Explanation

A linguist is someone who studies language. Linguists study every aspect of language, including vocabulary, grammar, the sound of language, and how words evolve over time. The study of language is called linguistics, and people who study linguistics are linguists. Being a linguist isn't easy; you usually have to go to graduate school and conduct research about a specific aspect of language. There are computational linguists, forensic linguists, comparative linguists, and many other specialties. If you love language, you'd probably enjoy a career as a linguist.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

linguist linguists

By examining bodies of written work, linguists can track the rise of such language quirks, says Kimberly Becker, a linguist and co-host of the “Women Talkin’ ‘Bout AI” podcast.

From Barron's ● Apr. 14, 2026

Michael Hahn, a linguist based in Saarbrücken, set out to answer that question with Richard Futrell from the University of California, Irvine.

From Science Daily ● Feb. 20, 2026

“There’s Communications Hill featuring a tower that’s part of the history of Silicon Valley,” the speech-recognition linguist said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 3, 2026

“I think how it’s represented in the film reflects how it’s actually used today,” said Grant Muāgututi’a, a Samoan linguist and dialect coach who worked on the movie.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 27, 2024

“But no, those words come from a poem written by the esteemed poet and linguist Master Lumumba. Do you know what they mean?”

From "Beasts of Prey" by Ayana Gray

That sentence structure is popping up everywhere these days, and linguists tie its popularity to AI models.

From Barron's ● Apr. 14, 2026

“Cleavage is a wonderful word. It’s what linguists call a contronym because its definition contains its own opposite. It means division, but it also means coming together. It also means the space between things.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 4, 2025

“The effort is praiseworthy, but so excessively tardy that it is perfectly useless,” a collective of linguists wrote in the Liberation newspaper on Thursday.

From BBC ● Nov. 14, 2024

The team, which comprised musicologists, psychologists, linguists, evolutionary biologists and professional musicians, recorded songs in 55 languages, including Arabic, Balinese, Basque, Cherokee, Maori, Ukrainian and Yoruba.

From New York Times ● May 15, 2024

There are also gray areas and various ways to lump and split the relations, which give linguists plenty of things to argue about.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker