Word.ws English Dictionary

dead language

dead language noun: a language which no longer has any native speakers.

Noun

dead language (plural dead languages)

  1. A language which no longer has any native speakers.
    • Supper being over, the lawyer took his leave, and the doctor began to ſound the learned clerk reſpecting his proficiency in the dead languages. "As to dead languages," replied the ſchoolmafter, "I was once a vaſt pretty ſcholar indeed, but want of exercise has made me main ſlack—I can't get over my...1799, Edward Dubois, A Piece of Family Biography, volume II, page 20

dead language meaning in Tamil, Kannada, Sinhala and Tagalog

dead language in Tamil

language with no native speakers
வழக்கிழந்த மொழி vaḻakkiḻanta moḻi

dead language in Kannada

language with no native speakers
ಸತ್ತಭಾಷೆ sattabhāṣe

dead language in Sinhala

මළ භාෂාව

dead language in Tagalog

language with no native speakers
patay na wika
More languagesFewer languages
dead language in Arabic
لُغَة بَائِدَة, لُغَة مَيِّتَة, لُغَة مُنْقَرِضَة, لُغَة مُنْدَثِرَة
dead language in Indonesian
bahasa mati
dead language in Vietnamese
tử ngữ

Synonyms of dead language

Forms of dead language

pluraldead languages

Questions about dead language

What does dead language mean?
Dead language means a language which no longer has any native speakers.
What is dead language in Tamil?
Dead language in Tamil is வழக்கிழந்த மொழி (vaḻakkiḻanta moḻi). See Dead language meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is dead language?
Dead language is a noun.
What is the plural of dead language?
The plural of dead language is dead languages.

Words near dead language in the dictionary

  1. dead in the water
  2. dead inside
  3. dead internet theory
  4. dead key
  5. dead keys
  6. dead language
  7. dead languages
  8. dead last
  9. dead leaf
  10. dead leaves
  11. dead leg

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dead language (page history and authors); dead language (Sinhala 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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-dead language.wav.

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