Word.ws English Dictionary

blue-tongue

blue-tongue is the alternative form of bluetongue.

Meaning of bluetongue

Noun

bluetongue (countable and uncountable, plural bluetongues)

  1. (uncountable) A disease of ruminants, caused by Bluetongue virus of the genus Orbivirus, carried by mosquitos, midges etc.
    Synonyms:
    catarrhal fever
  2. (Australia, countable) The blue-tongue lizard.
    • “I don't worry about snakes, blue-tongues, spiders. All I worry about is the mutton-bird.”2004, Nicholas Shakespeare, In Tasmania, Harvill Press, p. 191
  3. (Australia, New Zealand, colloquial, countable) Someone who is as sleepy as a lizard; a lazy person.

Forms of blue-tongue

pluralblue-tongues

Phrases with blue-tongue

Questions about blue-tongue

What is blue-tongue the alternative form of?
Blue-tongue is the alternative form of bluetongue.

Words near blue-tongue in the dictionary

  1. blue-throated sapphire
  2. blue-throated sapphires
  3. blue-tick
  4. blue-ticks
  5. blue-tile fever
  6. blue-tongue
  7. blue-tongue lizard
  8. blue-tongue lizards
  9. blue-tongued lizard
  10. blue-tongued lizards
  11. blue-tongued skink

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: blue-tongue (page history and authors); bluetongue (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: EN-AU ck1 blue-tongue.ogg.

Cite this entry: “blue-tongue.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/blue-tongue. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.