Matrilingual
adj ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Pertaining to one's mother tongue. not-comparable, rare
"Indeed, the obstacles in the way of compiling a comprehensive dictionary of the classical language are enormous, when one reflects on the vastness of the surviving literature, the fantastic richness of the language, the diverse matrilingual origins of the writers themselves, and the time and the area over which the language has continued to be written in its present form: for fourteen hundred years, in places as far apart as China and Spain."
Example
More examples"Indeed, the obstacles in the way of compiling a comprehensive dictionary of the classical language are enormous, when one reflects on the vastness of the surviving literature, the fantastic richness of the language, the diverse matrilingual origins of the writers themselves, and the time and the area over which the language has continued to be written in its present form: for fourteen hundred years, in places as far apart as China and Spain."
Etymology
From matri- (prefix meaning ‘mother’) + lingual (“related to language or linguistics”).
Related phrases
More for "matrilingual"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.