Word.ws English Dictionary

ghost language

ghost language noun: a language which has lost its speakers.

Noun

ghost language (plural ghost languages)

  1. A language which has lost its speakers.
    • Of the 250 or so Aboriginal languages once spoken in Australia, two-thirds are extinct or moribund. Coastal languages were usually the first to go, with settlement patterns matching patterns of extinction. In Western Australia, the former of approximately 110 Aboriginal languages, 45 were presumed...2000, Juliette Blevins, Nhanda: An Aboriginal Language of Western Australia (Oceanic linguistics special publication; 30), Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, →ISBN, page ix
  2. A posited natural language which does not actually exist.

Synonyms of ghost language

Forms of ghost language

pluralghost languages

Origin of ghost language

By analogy to ghost town.

Questions about ghost language

What does ghost language mean?
Ghost language means a language which has lost its speakers.
What part of speech is ghost language?
Ghost language is a noun.
What is the plural of ghost language?
The plural of ghost language is ghost languages.

Words near ghost language in the dictionary

  1. ghost kitchen
  2. ghost kitchens
  3. ghost knifefish
  4. ghost knifefishes
  5. ghost labor
  6. ghost language
  7. ghost languages
  8. ghost light
  9. ghost lore
  10. ghost mall
  11. ghost mark

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ghost 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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