Semilingual
adj, noun
adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A person who knows two or more languages but exhibits low profile in all of them, that involves having poor vocabulary and wrong grammar.
Adjective
- 1 Having a low profile in all of several languages that one can speak. not-comparable
"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."
Example
More examples"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."
Etymology
From semi- + lingual.
More for "semilingual"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.