Word.ws English Dictionary

code-switching

code-switching noun: the phenomenon or practice of alternating between two or more languages or language varieties. Also the present participle and gerund of code-switch.

Noun

code-switching (countable and uncountable, plural code-switchings)

  1. The phenomenon or practice of alternating between two or more languages or language varieties.
    • As with many bilingual families, it was normal to observe frequent code-switching at our dinner table.
    • Within the English language, a good example of code-switching in daily life is weaving back and forth between African American Vernacular English and General American English.
    Synonyms:
    code-mixing

Also used as

code-switching is also the present participle and gerund of code-switch.

code-switching meaning in Arabic, Indonesian and Persian

code-switching in Arabic

phenomenon or practice of alternating between two or more languages
تَنَاوَب لُغَوِيّ tanāwab luḡawiyy

code-switching in Indonesian

phenomenon or practice of alternating between two or more languages
alih kode

code-switching in Persian

phenomenon or practice of alternating between two or more languages
رمزگردانی ramz-gardâni

Synonyms of code-switching

Forms of code-switching

pluralcode-switchings
alternative formcodeswitching
alternative formcode switching

Questions about code-switching

What does code-switching mean?
Code-switching means the phenomenon or practice of alternating between two or more languages or language varieties.
What is code-switching in Arabic?
Code-switching in Arabic is تَنَاوَب لُغَوِيّ (tanāwab luḡawiyy). See Code-switching meaning in Arabic.
What part of speech is code-switching?
Code-switching is a noun.
What is the plural of code-switching?
The plural of code-switching is code-switchings.

Words near code-switching in the dictionary

  1. code-switch
  2. code-switched
  3. code-switcher
  4. code-switchers
  5. code-switches
  6. code-switching
  7. code-switchings
  8. codeathon
  9. codeathons
  10. codeball
  11. codebase

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: code-switching (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.

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