as in language
the stock of words, pronunciation, and grammar used by a people as their basic means of communication
although the anthropologist could speak the local language fairly well, she was always glad to find someone who shared her mother tongue
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of mother tongue
So to be able to play in my mother tongue would be an amazing experience because there would be no boundaries whatsoever.
—
Todd Gilchrist, Variety, 18 Mar. 2025
So to be able to play in my mother tongue would be an amazing experience because there would be no boundaries whatsoever.
—Todd Gilchrist, Variety, 18 Mar. 2025
The show opened with songs in Mukherjee’s mother tongue Bengali, that were composed, written and sung by famous Bengali musicians including Nobel Prize awardee Rabindranath Tagore.
—Riddhi Doshi, CNN, 28 Jan. 2025
The film’s Park City premiere would mark the beginning of what would be an incredible 12-month trajectory for the £4M ($5M) film about three hedonistic Irish speakers who form hip-hop group Kneecap and become the unlikely figureheads of a civil rights movement to save their mother tongue.
—Diana Lodderhose, Deadline, 23 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for mother tongue
Todd Gilchrist, Variety, 18 Mar. 2025
So to be able to play in my mother tongue would be an amazing experience because there would be no boundaries whatsoever.
—Todd Gilchrist, Variety, 18 Mar. 2025
The show opened with songs in Mukherjee’s mother tongue Bengali, that were composed, written and sung by famous Bengali musicians including Nobel Prize awardee Rabindranath Tagore.
—Riddhi Doshi, CNN, 28 Jan. 2025
The film’s Park City premiere would mark the beginning of what would be an incredible 12-month trajectory for the £4M ($5M) film about three hedonistic Irish speakers who form hip-hop group Kneecap and become the unlikely figureheads of a civil rights movement to save their mother tongue.
—Diana Lodderhose, Deadline, 23 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for mother tongue
Recent Examples of Synonyms for mother tongue
Noun
-
This platform uses rigorous standardization protocols, like OMB guidelines for demographics and ISO codes for language, ensuring consistency.—
Raghvendra Tripathi,
Forbes.com,
27 May 2025
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With technical innovation and a brand defining visual language that dates back 102 years, TIME Studios aims to impact communities and the world at large with ideas that forge true progress.—
TIME PR,
Time,
27 May 2025
Noun
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Of note is the incorporation of vocabulary from Ivan’s archaic Norm language, a special touch that entranced me.—
The Know,
Denver Post,
1 June 2025
-
Zimbabwe and South Africa share in Rhodes a common ancestor; in Ndebele a language with a close connection to Zulu (the most spoken language in South Africa); and the common visual vocabulary sometimes called Ndebele art.—
Percy Zvomuya,
Artforum,
1 June 2025
Noun
-
His mother wet a sponge to moisten his lips and tongue.—
Stephanie Armour,
Miami Herald,
29 May 2025
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Brushing, flossing, and using a tongue scraper can remove bacteria and improve taste perception.—
Fran Kritz,
Verywell Health,
28 May 2025
Noun
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There’s no universal language—only tribal dialects.—
Shekar Natarajan,
Forbes.com,
29 May 2025
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Because the characters are speaking a very distinctive local dialect, and that’s, of course, completely lost in translation.—
Georg Szalai,
HollywoodReporter,
28 May 2025
Noun
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Unleashing Wood has ushered in an exciting new phase for a widely influential band that has defined a state-of-the-art jazz idiom deeply engaged with other genres.—
Andrew Gilbert,
Mercury News,
23 May 2025
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Scientists analyzed recordings of three groups of chimpanzees living in the Ivory Coast and found that chimps can combine their hoots, grunts and calls in a similar way to how humans use idioms or change the order of words to build new phrases.—
Evan Bush,
NBC news,
11 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Mother tongue.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/mother%20tongue. Accessed 10 Jun. 2025.
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