calque
/kælk/
calque noun: a word or phrase in a language formed by word-for-word or morpheme-by-morpheme translation of a word in another language.
Noun
calque (plural calques)
- A word or phrase in a language formed by word-for-word or morpheme-by-morpheme translation of a word in another language.
- David S. Powers, professor of Islamic history and law at Cornell, says he thinks that the word as used today is in the nature of what linguists call a calque, a borrowing from another language in literal translation […]2005 March 27, William Safire, “Kifaya!”, in The New York Times Magazine, archived from the original on 14 Mar 2021
- Those phrases, translated from Spanish, are known as calques. […] The three young Miamians in the video also use “super” as an adverb, one of the calques from Spanish mentioned in Dr. Carter’s research. (“Ay, I’m super bloated.”)2023 July 26, Patricia Mazzei, “‘Get Down’ From the Car. ‘Make’ the Line. Is Miami English a Dialect?”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 31 Jul 2023
- Synonyms:
- loan translation, calquing
Verb
calque (third-person singular simple present calques, present participle calquing, simple past and past participle calqued)
- To adopt (a word or phrase) from one language to another by semantic translation of its parts.
- Terms like "cloud computing" have been calqued into multiple languages, making it easier for global audiences to grasp complex technological concepts. […] For example, translating Shakespeare's works into other languages often involves calquing phrases to maintain the rhythm and metaphorical...2024 June 7, Soumaya Amine Al Salti, “Calque Examples in Translating: Impacts on Linguistic Diversity”, in Soumaya Salti, archived from the original on 21 Mar 2025
calque meaning in Tamil, Kannada, Arabic and Indonesian
calque in Tamil
- பெயர்ப்புறு கடன்சொல், கடன் மொழிபெயர்ப்பு
calque in Kannada
- ನೇರ ಅನುವಾದ
calque in Arabic
- word formed by word-for-word translation of a word in another language
- تَرْجَمَة اِقْتِرَاضِيَّة tarjama iqtirāḍiyya
calque in Indonesian
- word formed by word-for-word translation of a word in another language
- pinjam terjemah
- adopt a word by translation of its parts
- meminjam terjemah
More languagesFewer languages
- calque in Persian
- گرتهبرداری gerte-bardâri
- calque in Thai
- แคลเก้
Synonyms of calque
Forms of calque
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | calques |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | calques |
| present participle | calquing |
| past participle | calqued |
| past | calqued |
Origin of calque
From French calque (“calque”, literally “copy, tracing”), from calquer (“to copy, trace”) (whence also calk), itself borrowed from Italian calcare, from Latin calcāre (“to tread”). Doublet of calcate and calcation.
Words formed from calque
Phrases with calque
Words that rhyme with calque
Questions about calque
- What does calque mean?
- Calque means a word or phrase in a language formed by word-for-word or morpheme-by-morpheme translation of a word in another language.
- What is calque in Tamil?
- Calque in Tamil is பெயர்ப்புறு கடன்சொல், கடன் மொழிபெயர்ப்பு. See Calque meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is calque?
- Calque can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce calque?
- Calque is pronounced /kælk/.
- What is the plural of calque?
- The plural of calque is calques.
Words near calque in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: calque (page history and authors); calque (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); calque (Kannada Wiktionary) (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-us-calque.ogg.
Cite this entry: “calque.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/calque. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.