mother tongue
noun
the language first learned by a person; native language.
mother tongues
-
pluralof mother tongue.plural
The grammatical form denoting more than one person, place, thing, or idea.
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.
Anxiety about immigrants’ attachment to their mother tongues goes back to colonial days.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 4, 2025
Ganesh Narayan Devy has been obsessed with that question since, as a young scholar of literature, he came across a linguistic census from 1971 that listed 108 mother tongues spoken by Indians.
From New York Times ● Jun. 11, 2022
Chaudry tried to learn as much as he could on the ground in Lahore, but he admits his grasp of Pakistan’s mother tongues is shaky.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 3, 2022
Lee Kuan Yew pointed out in his book how a multitude of mother tongues could have been a major hindrance to Singapore’s national security.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 14, 2019
And neither had she, the two of them hiding behind their mother tongues as if there was no way to bridge the gap.
From "Bone Gap" by Laura Ruby
