monolingual
/ˌmɒ.nəʊˈlɪŋ.ɡwəl/
monolingual adjective: knowing or using a single language; written or spoken in a single language.
Adjective
monolingual (comparative more monolingual, superlative most monolingual)
- Knowing or using a single language; written or spoken in a single language.
- Thus approximately 98% of signs contained English, and 93.5% of signs were wholly in English. As far as linguistic landscapes go, this is a case of extreme monolingual dominance in a multilingual setting.2019, Li Huang, James Lambert, “Another Arrow for the Quiver: A New Methodology for Multilingual Researchers”, in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, →DOI, page 5
- Synonyms:
- unilingual
- Antonyms:
- multilingual, plurilingual
Noun
monolingual (plural monolinguals)
- a person who knows or uses only a single language; a monoglot
monolingual meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Tagalog and Arabic
monolingual in Hindi
- only knowing or spoken in one language
- एकभाषी ekbhāṣī
monolingual in Urdu
- یک لسان
monolingual in Tagalog
- only knowing or spoken in one language
- sanwika
monolingual in Arabic
- only knowing or spoken in one language
- أُحَادِي اَللُّغَة ʔuḥādī l-luḡa
More languagesFewer languages
- monolingual in Malay
- ekabahasa
- monolingual in Persian
- تکزبانه, یکزبانه
Examples of monolingual in a sentence
- At NIE the virtually monolingual linguistic landscape basically belies a quite different multilingual reality.
- In this situation, being excluseively Spanish-speaking may increasingly be experienced as a disadvantage by monolinguals.
- Adult immigrants must perforce learn some English, and their children are likely to become English monolinguals.
Synonyms of monolingual
Antonyms
Forms of monolingual
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more monolingual |
| superlative | most monolingual |
| Noun | |
| plural | monolinguals |
Origin of monolingual
From mono- + lingual.
Words formed from monolingual
Words that rhyme with monolingual
- translingual
- bilingual
- buccolingual
- decalingual
- lingual
- nonalingual
- octolingual
- pentalingual
- quadrilingual
- sublingual
- ambilingual
- dentilingual
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- heptalingual
- hexalingual
- labiolingual
- multilingual
- polylingual
- prelingual
- quinquelingual
- sesquilingual
- tetralingual
- trilingual
- alveololingual
- anterolingual
- apicolingual
- audiolingual
- axiolingual
- brevilingual
- cervicolingual
- colingual
- collingual
- crosslingual
- distolingual
- dorsolingual
- equilingual
- exolingual
- faciolingual
- fissilingual
- gingivolingual
- heterolingual
- homolingual
- hyolingual
- interlingual
- intralingual
- laterolingual
- matrilingual
- mediolingual
- mesiolingual
- mesolingual
- metrolingual
- midlingual
- omnilingual
- panlingual
- paralingual
- perilingual
- plurilingual
- posterolingual
- postlingual
- protolingual
- retrolingual
Questions about monolingual
- What does monolingual mean?
- Monolingual means knowing or using a single language; written or spoken in a single language.
- What is monolingual in Hindi?
- Monolingual in Hindi is एकभाषी (ekbhāṣī). See Monolingual meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is monolingual?
- Monolingual can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce monolingual?
- Monolingual is pronounced /ˌmɒ.nəʊˈlɪŋ.ɡwəl/.
Words near monolingual in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: monolingual (page history and authors); monolingual (Urdu 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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-monolingual.wav.
Cite this entry: “monolingual.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/monolingual. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.