multilingual
/ˌmʌltiˈlɪŋɡwəl/
multilingual adjective: of, relating to, or involving multiple languages.
Adjective
multilingual (comparative more multilingual, superlative most multilingual)
- Of, relating to, or involving multiple languages.
- In reality, the multidimensionality of language contact in multilingual environments ensures no such neat compartmentalisation.2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide, page 9
- Wikipedia is the most ambitious multilingual project after the Bible: There are editions in over 340 languages, and a further 400 even more obscure ones are being developed and tested.2025 September 25, Jacob Judah, “How AI and Wikipedia have sent vulnerable languages into a doom spiral”, in MIT Technology Review
- Synonyms:
- many-tongued, multilanguage, multilinguistic, plurilingual
- Able to communicate in a number of languages.
- So being multilingual can make you more appealing, more successful and more compassionate. And it’s also good for your health.2017 April 2, Maureen O'Hare, “Does being bilingual make you sexy?”, in CNN
- Describing us as multilingual emphasizes our achievements and that learning English adds to the richness of our identity.2021 December 18, Ching Ching Tan, “Spielberg’s West Side Story shows us the value of multilingualism”, in CNN
- Synonyms:
- polyglot
- Antonyms:
- monolingual, unilingual
Noun
multilingual (plural multilinguals)
- A polyglot.
multilingual meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Telugu
multilingual in Hindi
- multilingual
- बहुभाषीय bahubhāṣīya
multilingual in Tamil
- பன்மொழி, பலமொழிகள் கொண்ட, பலமொழிகள் பேசும்
multilingual in Urdu
- pertaining to multiple languages
- کثیر اللسان
- able to communicate fluently in multiple languages
- کثیر اللسان
multilingual in Telugu
- pertaining to multiple languages
- బహుభాషా bahubhāṣā
More languagesFewer languages
- multilingual in Kannada
- ಬಹುಭಾಷಿಕ, ಹಲನುಡಿಯ, ಹಲನುಡಿಗ
- multilingual in Arabic
- مُتَعَدِّد اللُّغَات mutaʕaddid al-luḡāt, أَلْسُنِيّ ʔalsuniyy, لُغَاتِيّ luḡātiyy, لِسانجيّ
- multilingual in Indonesian
- multibahasa
- multilingual in Persian
- چند زبانه čand zabâne
- multilingual in Vietnamese
- đa ngôn ngữ
Examples of multilingual in a sentence
- Instead of nonnative speakers, we should be called bilingual or multilingual speakers.
- At NIE the virtually monolingual linguistic landscape basically belies a quite different multilingual reality.
- Wiktionary is a multilingual dictionary (also thesaurus and phrase-book) and has distinctive content policies.
Synonyms of multilingual
Antonyms
Forms of multilingual
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more multilingual |
| superlative | most multilingual |
| Noun | |
| plural | multilinguals |
Origin of multilingual
From multi- + lingual.
Words formed from multilingual
Phrases with multilingual
Words that rhyme with multilingual
- translingual
- bilingual
- buccolingual
- decalingual
- lingual
- nonalingual
- octolingual
- pentalingual
- quadrilingual
- sublingual
- ambilingual
- dentilingual
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- heptalingual
- hexalingual
- labiolingual
- 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
- monolingual
- omnilingual
- panlingual
- paralingual
- perilingual
- plurilingual
- posterolingual
- postlingual
- protolingual
- retrolingual
Questions about multilingual
- What does multilingual mean?
- Multilingual means of, relating to, or involving multiple languages.
- What is multilingual in Hindi?
- Multilingual in Hindi is बहुभाषीय (bahubhāṣīya). See Multilingual meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is multilingual?
- Multilingual can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce multilingual?
- Multilingual is pronounced /ˌmʌltiˈlɪŋɡwəl/.
Words near multilingual in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: multilingual (page history and authors); बहुभाषीय (Hindi) (page history and authors); multilingual (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); multilingual (Kannada 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-multilingual.wav.
Cite this entry: “multilingual.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/multilingual. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.