native speaker

noun

: a person who learned to speak the language of the place where he or she was born as a child rather than learning it as a foreign language
a native speaker of Swahili
That kind of mistake is rarely made by native speakers.

Examples of native speaker in a Sentence

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The messages, viewed by The New York Times, were all written in Russian, apparently by a native speaker well versed in vulgar slang. Jenny Gross, New York Times, 22 Dec. 2023 For anyone, native speaker or not, this book offers a pleasurable and humorous voyage of discovery. Peter Trudgill, Foreign Affairs, 19 Oct. 2021 Sound more like a native speaker and be confident when interacting with others. Stack Commerce, Popular Science, 11 May 2023

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Cite this Entry

“Native speaker.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/native%20speaker. Accessed 8 Nov. 2024.

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