Word.ws English Dictionary

dead languages

dead languages is the plural of dead language.

Meaning of dead language

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

Questions about dead languages

What is dead languages the plural of?
Dead languages is the plural of dead language.

Words near dead languages in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: dead languages (page history and authors); dead language (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: “dead languages.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dead_languages. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.