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

The foreign ministry said the family of linguist and researcher Dennis Coyle had written to the supreme leader of Afghanistan, asking that he be released and pardoned for Eid.

From Barron's ● Mar. 24, 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

As the linguist Geoffrey Pullum has noted, there is nothing wrong with a news report that uses the passive voice to say, “Helicopters were flown in to put out the fires.”

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker

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

From Barron's ● Apr. 14, 2026

In earlier research, linguists tried to avoid similarities between related or nearby languages by selecting samples from distant regions.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 5, 2026

The show has not officially aired in Japan and South Korea, but dedicated linguists have translated star duo Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie's countless interviews into Korean.

From BBC ● Feb. 26, 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

Sequoyah’s syllabary is widely admired by professional linguists for its good fit to Cherokee sounds, and for the ease with which it can be learned.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond