linguist

American  

[ling-gwist] / ˈlɪŋ gwɪst /

noun

• linguists
  plural

1. a specialist in linguistics.

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

---

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

---

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

Eric Baker, a retired Air Force linguist who volunteers at the Pattaya VFW office, said he had been following news coverage of the Lincoln’s lengthy deployment.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026

A forensic linguist told the BBC it's possible to glean crucial information about a person from just a few sentences.

From BBC ● Aug. 2, 2026

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

Hence a linguist would immediately deduce correctly that the English language arose in coastal northwestern Europe and spread around the world from there.

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

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

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 Africa Next Voices project brought together linguists and computer scientists to create AI-ready datasets in 18 African languages.

From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2025

But it’s clear that the phenomenon is not just the tweedy concern of linguists.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 3, 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