Word.ws English Dictionary

mother language

mother language noun: synonym of mother tongue.

Noun

mother language (plural mother languages)

  1. Synonym of mother tongue.
    • Yet neuertheleſſe, the rudenes of common and mother tonges, is no bar foꝛ wiſe ſpeaking. Foꝛ in the rudeſt contrie, and moſt barbarous mother language, many be found can ſpeake verie wiſelie: but in the Gréeke and latin tong, the two onelie learned tonges, which be kept, not in common taulke, but...a. 1569 (date written), Roger Ascham, “[The Second Booke Teachyng the Ready Way to the Latin Tong]”, in Margaret Ascham, editor, The Scholemaster: Or Plaine and Perfite Way of Teaching Children, to...
    Synonyms:
    mother tongue

Synonyms of mother language

Forms of mother language

pluralmother languages

Origin of mother language

From Middle English modir langage, equivalent to mother + language.

Questions about mother language

What does mother language mean?
Mother language means synonym of mother tongue.
What part of speech is mother language?
Mother language is a noun.
What is the plural of mother language?
The plural of mother language is mother languages.

Words near mother language in the dictionary

  1. mother hives
  2. Mother Hubbard
  3. Mother Hubbard clause
  4. Mother Hubbard clauses
  5. Mother Hubbards
  6. mother language
  7. mother languages
  8. mother liquor
  9. mother liquors
  10. mother load
  11. mother lode

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: mother 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: “mother language.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mother_language. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.