multilingual

adjective

mul·​ti·​lin·​gual ˌməl-tē-ˈliŋ-gwəl 

-ˈliŋ-gyə-wəl,

-ˌtī-

1

: of, having, or expressed in several languages

a multilingual sign

multilingual dictionaries

2

: using or able to use several languages especially with equal fluency

multilingual translators

multilingualism

ˌməl-tē-ˈliŋ-gwə-ˌli-zəm 

-gyə-wə-

-ˌtī-

noun

multilingually

ˌməl-tē-ˈliŋ-gwə-lē 

-gyə-wə-lē

-ˌtī-

adverb

Did you know?

The roots of multilingual come from Latin. If you happen to prefer Greek, use the synonym polyglot, in which poly- has the same meaning as multi-, and -glot means the same thing as -lingual. The best way to become multilingual is probably to be born in a bilingual (two-language) household; learning those first two seems to give the mind the kind of exercise that makes later language-learning easy.

Examples of multilingual in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Then, in 1992, a bill was passed by Congress and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush that required municipalities to provide multilingual ballots and voter information. —Daniel Miller, Los Angeles Times, 29 Oct. 2024

The multilingual models outperformed open-weight models from Google (GOOGL), Mistral, and Meta (META), according to Cohere. —Britney Nguyen, Quartz, 26 Oct. 2024

Integrating these languages into AI development and creating multilingual AI models are essential steps toward global inclusivity. 4. —Olga Megorskaya, Forbes, 24 Oct. 2024

Her mother was a researcher and an administrator of multilingual education programs. —Rivka Galchen, The New Yorker, 14 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1838, in the meaning defined at sense 1