multilingual

Multilingual is most commonly used to describe someone who can speak or understand multiple languages, especially someone who can speak several languages with some level of fluency.

It can also be used to describe things that involve or that are written or spoken in multiple languages, as in These instructions are multilingual—they’re written in seven different languages.

Someone who speaks two languages is multilingual, but the term is most often used to describe someone who speaks more than three languages, since the term bilingual is commonly used to describe someone who speaks two languages and trilingual is used to describe someone who speaks three.

The ability to speak multiple languages or the use of multiple languages is called multilingualism.

Example: Being multilingual is a great advantage when applying for international jobs.

The first records of the word multilingual come from the 1830s. It’s composed of multi-, meaning “many” or “multiple,” and lingual, which means “pertaining to languages.” Lingual shares a root with other language-related words, like linguistics and linguaphile.

Some people who are multilingual may be masters of all the languages they speak. In this case, they’re often called polyglots. But a person might be described—or describe themselves—as multilingual even if they’re not fluent in all of the languages they can speak. Most multilingual people have differing levels of fluency for each language they know.

Countries are often described as multilingual when they have two or more official or widely used languages. India, for example, is one of the most multilingual countries, with more than 20 official languages and at least 100 others, as well as hundreds of dialects.

What are some other forms related to multilingual?

• multilingually (adverb)
• multilingualism (noun)

What are some synonyms for multilingual?

• polyglot

What are some words that share a root or word element with multilingual? 

• bilingual
• trilingual
• monolingual
• multiple

What are some words that often get used in discussing multilingual?

• several
• language
• speaker
• speak
• communication
• writing

Multilingual is most commonly used to describe people who speak more than three languages.

Is it weird to have a multilingual inner thoughts? Kadang indo, kadang inggris, even korea 🙂

— Syagra Jasminda ✨ (@syagrajsmnd) June 6, 2020

Very impressed with English's seafood restaurant in Brighton and its multilingual menu! pic.twitter.com/PHgpJ7W5Tx

— Grow Global (@growglobal) February 16, 2015

PSA: There is never a reason to apologize for "bad English" when contributing/discussing in OSS 😊 Software and communicating about software are not limited to English. I should be thanking you for using English 🙏

❤️s to all you multilingual people. You are the true heroes.

— Josh Holtz 💪🚀 (@joshdholtz) June 30, 2020

Is multilingual used correctly in the following sentence?

In some places, the street signs are multilingual since there are multiple widely spoken languages.