Adjacent Words

mother tongue definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: one's native language; the language learned by children and passed from one generation to the next [syn: mother tongue, maternal language, first language]

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 14th century 1. one's native language 2. a language from which another language derives

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Mother Moth"er, a. Received by birth or from ancestors; native, natural; as, mother language; also acting the part, or having the place of a mother; producing others; originating. It is the mother falsehood from which all idolatry is derived. --T. Arnold. Mother cell (Biol.), a cell which, by endogenous divisions, gives rise to other cells (daughter cells); a parent cell. Mother church, the original church; a church from which other churches have sprung; as, the mother church of a diocese. Mother country, the country of one's parents or ancestors; the country from which the people of a colony derive their origin. Mother liquor (Chem.), the impure or complex residual solution which remains after the salts readily or regularly crystallizing have been removed. Mother queen, the mother of a reigning sovereign; a queen mother. Mother tongue. (a) A language from which another language has had its origin. (b) The language of one's native land; native tongue. Mother water. See Mother liquor (above). Mother wit, natural or native wit or intelligence.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

also mother-tongue(mother tongues) Your mother tongue is the language that you learn from your parents when you are a baby. = native tongue N-COUNT: oft poss N