linguist
Americannoun
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linguists
plural
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a specialist in linguistics.
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a person who is skilled in several languages; polyglot.
noun
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a person who has the capacity to learn and speak foreign languages
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a person who studies linguistics
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the spokesman for a chief
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
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.
Vocabulary lists containing linguist
This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for February 22–February 28, 2026
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Suffixes: -ist
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"Teen Slang" – "Is Money Affecting Your Social Status?”
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
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
A gifted linguist, she soon mastered Mayan dialects.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 25, 2026
He had just been reading the work of the linguist Noam Chomsky.
From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell
That sentence structure is popping up everywhere these days, and linguists tie its popularity to AI models.
From Barron's ● Apr. 14, 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
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
Most linguists specializing in Native American languages do not discern large, clear-cut groupings other than Eskimo-Aleut and Na-Dene.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
