semilingual
semilingual adjective: having a low profile in all of several languages that one can speak.
Adjective
semilingual (not comparable)
- Having a low profile in all of several languages that one can speak.
- The harmful effects of semilingualism on the identity and psyche, together with an incomplete mastery of Swedish, made the semilingual person socially handicapped in comparison with the monolingual Swede.2014, Mia Halonen, Pasi Ihalainen, Language Policies in Finland and Sweden: Interdisciplinary and Multi-sited Comparisons
Noun
semilingual (plural semilinguals)
- A person who knows two or more languages but exhibits low profile in all of them, that involves having poor vocabulary and wrong grammar.
Forms of semilingual
| plural | semilinguals |
|---|
Origin of semilingual
From semi- + lingual.
Words formed from semilingual
Words that rhyme with semilingual
- 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
- monolingual
- omnilingual
- panlingual
- paralingual
- perilingual
- plurilingual
- posterolingual
- postlingual
- protolingual
Questions about semilingual
- What does semilingual mean?
- Semilingual means having a low profile in all of several languages that one can speak.
- What part of speech is semilingual?
- Semilingual can be an adjective or a noun.
Words near semilingual in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: semilingual (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:
Cite this entry: “semilingual.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/semilingual. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.