Monolingual

adj, noun

adj, noun ·4 syllables ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    a person who knows or uses only a single language; a monoglot
  2. 2
    a person who knows only one language wordnet
Adjective
  1. 1
    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."

Adjective
  1. 1
    using or knowing only one language wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
monoglotmonoglotunilingualunilingual

Example

More examples

"Can anyone recommend for me a good monolingual German dictionary?"

Etymology

From mono- + lingual.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.