mother tongue

American  

[muhth-er tuhng, muhth-er tuhng] / ˈmʌð ər ˈtʌŋ, ˈmʌð ər ˌtʌŋ /

noun

• mother tongues
  plural

1. the language first learned by a person; native language.

2. mother language.

---

mother tongue British  

noun

1. the language first learned by a child

2. a language from which another has evolved

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• mother tongues
  plural

Etymology

Origin of mother tongue

1350–1400; Middle English moder tonge

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

mother tongue

But that authenticity was also palpable in Martin’s performance on Sunday — a vindication for all the years his mother tongue was manipulated in the mainstream.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 10, 2026

He dropped his English name, James, and resolved to write only in the language of the Kikuyu people, his mother tongue.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 23, 2025

For Esau, not being able to speak her mother tongue was "a wound".

From Barron's ● Oct. 10, 2025

"Iranians were here. They all fled," one of them says, speaking in his mother tongue, a dialect of Turkish.

From BBC ● Feb. 15, 2025

That poet she met at Lucinda's party the night before argued that no matter how much of it one lost, in the midst of some profound emotion, one would revert to one's mother tongue.

From "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez

Related Words

• first language