English Explanatory Dictionary

tongue

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. The flexible muscular organ in the mouth that is used to move food around, for tasting and that is moved into various positions to modify the flow of air from the lungs in order to produce different sounds in speech.
  2. Such an organ, as taken from animals and used for food (especially from cows).
  3. Any similar organ, such as the lingual ribbon, or odontophore, of a mollusk; the proboscis of a moth or butterfly; or the lingua of an insect.
  4. A language.
  5. The speakers of a language, collectively.
  6. A voice, (the distinctive sound of a person's speech); accent (distinctive manner of pronouncing a language).
  7. A manner of speaking, often habitually.
  8. A person speaking in a specified manner.
  9. The power of articulate utterance; speech generally.
  10. Discourse; the fluency of speech or expression.
  11. Discourse; fluency of speech or expression.
  12. Honorable discourse; eulogy.
verb
  1. On a wind instrument, to articulate a note by starting the air with a tap of the tongue, as though by speaking a 'd' or 't' sound (alveolar plosive).
  2. To manipulate with the tongue.
  3. To lick, penetrate or manipulate with the tongue during flirting or oral sex.
  4. To protrude in relatively long, narrow sections.
  5. To join by means of a tongue and groove.
  6. To talk; to prate.
  7. To speak; to utter.
  8. To chide; to scold.
name
  1. A village by the Kyle of Tongue in Sutherland, Highland council area, Scotland (OS grid ref NC5956).
  2. A surname.

Pronunciation

/tʌŋ/ en-us-tongue.ogg En-uk-tongue.ogg /tʊŋɡ/ /tɒŋɡ/

Word forms

tongue tongues tong tonge toong toongue toung tounge toungue tung tunge tonguing tongued

Etymology

From Middle English tongue, a late spelling of tong(e), tung(e), from Old English tunge, from Proto-West Germanic *tungā (“tongue”), from Proto-Germanic *tungǭ (“tongue”), from Proto-Indo-European *dn̥ǵʰwéh₂s (“tongue”). Cognate with Dutch tong (“tongue”), German Zunge (“tongue”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk tunge (“tongue”), Faroese, Icelandic, and Swedish tunga (“tongue”), Gothic 𐍄𐌿𐌲𐌲𐍉 (tuggō, “tongue”), Irish teanga (“tongue”), Asturian and Catalan llengua (“tongue”), Aragonese luenga (“tongue”), French langue (“tongue”), Galician and Latin lingua (“tongue”), Leonese llingua (“tongue”), Mirandese lhéngua (“tongue”), Portuguese língua (“tongue”), Spanish lengua (“tongue”), Belarusian and Russian язык (jazyk, “tongue”), Bulgarian ези́к (ezík, “tongue”), Czech and Slovak jazyk (“tongue”), Macedonian јазик (jazik, “tongue”), Polish język (“tongue”), Serbo-Croatian jèzik (“tongue”), Slovene jézik (“tongue”), Ukrainian язи́к (jazýk, “tongue”), Persian زبان (zabân, “tongue”), Sanskrit जि॒ह्वा (jihvā́, “tongue”). Doublet of language and lingua. The expected modern spelling, both phonetically and etymologically, would be tung. Using ⟨on⟩ for ⟨un⟩ was fairly common in Middle English; compare e.g. yong (“young”). The final ⟨gue⟩ arose to prevent tonge being misread with a soft /dʒ/. However, this spelling only became common at a time when the final ⟨e⟩ was already largely silent, so it is not clear why it was not simply dropped instead. Perhaps the spelling was influenced directly by French langue (“tongue”).

Synonyms

glossa lingua idiom language lingo mouth speaking in tongues

Related words

👅 gloss- glossal lingual linguiform linguo-

Derived words

acid-tongued adder's tongue adder's-tongue advanced tongue root beardtongue beef tongue betongue bird's-tongue birth-tongue birth tongue bite one's tongue blab-tongue blabtongue black hairy tongue syndrome bluetongue blue-tongue blue-tongued skink blue-tongue lizard bonytongue bridle one's tongue burning tongue syndrome cat got someone's tongue cat tongue cat's tongue civil tongue click one's tongue cloverleaf tongue cluck one's tongue deer's tongue devil's tongue disc-tongued frog dog's tongue double-tongue double-tongued double-tonguing drop-tongue earth tongue earth-tongue father tongue find one's tongue flamingo tongue flutter tongue flutter-tongue foreign tongue forked tongue geographic tongue gift of tongues give tongue goosetongue goose tongue guard one's tongue hart's tongue have something on the tip of one's tongue hold one's tongue honey-tongued hound's tongue hound's-tongue ice tongue intertongue jury of half-tongue

Translations

Abkhaz: абз Afrikaans: tong Ahom: 𑜎𑜢𑜃𑜫 Ainu: チャルンペ Ainu: パルンペ Akan: tɛkrɛma Aklanon: dila' Alawa: djeːjälŋ Albanian: gjuhë Albanian: gu Alviri-Vidari: زووان Ama: isauno Northern Amami Ōshima: 唇 Southern Amami Ōshima: 唇 Amharic: ልሳን Andi: мицӏцӏи Ao: temeli Arabic: لِسَان Arabic: لسان Chadian Arabic: لسان Iraqi Arabic: لسان Aragonese: luenga Assyrian Neo-Aramaic: ܠܸܫܵܢܵܐ Aramaic: ܠܫܢܐ Jewish Babylonian Aramaic: לִשָּׁנָא Archi: мац Arin: elep Armenian: լեզու Aromanian: limbã (roa-rup) Eastern Arrernte: alenye Ashkun: žū Asi: rila Assamese: জিভা Asturian: llingua Avar: мацӏ Azerbaijani: dil Balantak: sila' Baluchi: زبان Baluchi: زوان Bamukumbit: alɨm Bangi: lolemu Bashkir: тел Basque: mihi Belarusian: язы́к
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