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tongue

Your tongue is the muscle in your mouth that you press against your teeth in order to speak, as well the home of your taste buds. What a useful member of the body!

Tongue supposedly came from the Latin word lingua, meaning "language," but you can't hear the similarity because we pronounce it TUNG, keeping the "ue" silent. A tongue can be anything shaped like your tongue. The flap of leather under your shoelaces is called a tongue, and so is the striker inside a bell. Tongue also means language, like the German tongue, or the Cajun tongue. As a verb, tongue means "lick," as in when the dog tongues your empty plate.

PRIMARY MEANINGS OF: tongue

1	n v	a mobile mass of muscular tissue covered with mucous membrane and located in the oral cavity lick or explore with the tongue
2	n	a human written or spoken language used by a community; opposed to e.g. a computer language
3	n	a narrow strip of land that juts out into the sea

FULL DEFINITIONS OF: tongue

n a mobile mass of muscular tissue covered with mucous membrane and located in the oral cavity

Synonyms:: clapper, glossa, lingua

Type of:: organ
a fully differentiated structural and functional unit in an animal that is specialized for some particular function; articulator
a movable speech organ

n the tongue of certain animals used as meat

Types:: beef tongue
the tongue of a cow eaten as meat; calf's tongue
the tongue of a calf eaten as meat

Type of:: organs, variety meat
edible viscera of a butchered animal

v lick or explore with the tongue

Type of:: lap, lick
pass the tongue over

v articulate by tonguing, as when playing wind instruments

Types:: double tongue, triple-tongue
play fast notes on a wind instrument

Type of:: play, spiel
replay (as a melody)

n a human written or spoken language used by a community; opposed to e.g. a computer language

Synonyms:: natural language

Antonyms:: artificial language
a language that is deliberately created for a specific purpose

Types:: show 90 types...; hide 90 types...; first language, maternal language, mother tongue
one's native language; the language learned by children and passed from one generation to the next; tonal language, tone language
a language in which different tones distinguish different meanings; creole
a mother tongue that originates from contact between two languages; American Indian, American-Indian language, Amerind, Amerindian language, Indian
any of the languages spoken by Amerindians; Eskimo-Aleut, Eskimo-Aleut language
the family of languages that includes Eskimo and Aleut; Chukchi, Chukchi language
an indigenous and isolated language of unknown origin spoken by the Chukchi that is pronounced differently by men and women; Sino-Tibetan, Sino-Tibetan language
the family of tonal languages spoken in eastern Asia; Austro-Asiatic, Austro-Asiatic language, Munda-Mon-Khmer
a family of languages spoken in southern and southeastern Asia; Hmong, Hmong language, Miao
a language of uncertain affiliation spoken by the Hmong; Austronesian, Austronesian language
the family of languages spoken in Australia and Formosa and Malaysia and Polynesia; Papuan, Papuan language
any of the indigenous languages spoken in Papua New Guinea or New Britain or the Solomon Islands that are not Malayo-Polynesian languages; Khoisan, Khoisan language
a family of languages spoken in southern Africa; Indo-European, Indo-European language, Indo-Hittite
the family of languages that by 1000 BC were spoken throughout Europe and in parts of southwestern and southern Asia; Ural-Altaic
a (postulated) group of languages including many of the indigenous languages of Russia (but not Russian); Basque
the language of the Basque people; of no known relation to any other language; Elamite, Elamitic, Susian
an extinct ancient language of unknown affinities; spoken by the Elamites; Cassite, Kassite
an ancient language spoken by the Kassites; Caucasian, Caucasian language
a number of languages spoken in the Caucasus that are unrelated to languages spoken elsewhere; Dravidian, Dravidian language, Dravidic
a large family of languages spoken in south and central India and Sri Lanka; Afrasian, Afrasian language, Afro-Asiatic, Afroasiatic, Afroasiatic language, Hamito-Semitic
a large family of related languages spoken both in Asia and Africa; Niger-Kordofanian, Niger-Kordofanian language
the family of languages that includes most of the languages spoken in Africa south of the Sahara; the majority of them are tonal languages but there are important exceptions (e.g., Swahili or Fula); Nilo-Saharan, Nilo-Saharan language
a family of East African languages spoken by Nilotic peoples from the Sahara south to Kenya and Tanzania; contour language
a tone language that uses pitch changes; register language
a tone language that uses different voice registers; Haitian Creole
a creole language spoken by most Haitians; based on French and various African languages; Algonquian, Algonquian language, Algonquin
family of North American Indian languages spoken from Labrador to South Carolina and west to the Great Plains; Atakapa, Atakapan, Attacapa, Attacapan
a language spoken by the Atakapa of the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Texas; Athabascan, Athabaskan, Athapascan, Athapaskan, Athapaskan language
a group of Amerindian languages (the name coined by an American anthropologist, Edward Sapir); Muskhogean, Muskhogean language, Muskogean, Muskogean language
a family of North American Indian languages spoken in the southeastern United States; Na-Dene
a family of North American Indian languages; Mosan
a family of Amerindian languages spoken in Washington and British Columbia; Caddo, Caddoan, Caddoan language
a family of North American Indian languages spoken widely in the Midwest by the Caddo; Iroquoian, Iroquoian language, Iroquois
a family of North American Indian languages spoken by the Iroquois; Kechua, Kechuan, Quechua, Quechuan, Quechuan language
the language of the Quechua which was spoken by the Incas; Maracan language, Maraco
the language spoken by the Maraco; Tupi-Guarani, Tupi-Guarani language
a family of South American Indian languages; Arawak, Arawakan
a family of South American Indian languages spoken in northeastern South America; Carib, Caribbean language
the family of languages spoken by the Carib; Eskimo, Esquimau
the language spoken by the Eskimo; Aleut
the language spoken by the Aleut; Uto-Aztecan, Uto-Aztecan language
a family of American Indian languages; Maya, Mayan, Mayan language
a family of American Indian languages spoken by Maya; Siouan, Siouan language
a family of North American Indian languages spoken by the Sioux; Tanoan, Tanoan language
a family of North American Indian language spoken in southwestern United States; Hoka, Hokan
a family of Amerindian languages spoken in California; Penutian
a family of Amerindian language spoken in the great interior valley of California; Altaic, Altaic language
a group of related languages spoken in Asia and southeastern Europe; Sinitic, Sinitic language
a group of Sino-Tibetan languages; Tibeto-Burman, Tibeto-Burman language
a branch of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages spoken from Tibet to the Malay Peninsula; Kadai, Kadai language, Kam-Tai
a family of Sino-Tibetan languages spoken in southeastern Asia; Munda
a family of languages spoken by people scattered throughout central India; Mon-Khmer
a branch of the Austro-Asiatic languages; Malayo-Polynesian, Polynesian
the branch of the Austronesian languages spoken from Madagascar to the central Pacific; Aboriginal Australian, Australian
the Austronesian languages spoken by Australian aborigines; Formosan
the Austronesian languages spoken on Formosa; Hottentot, Khoikhoi, Khoikhoin
any of the Khoisan languages spoken by the pastoral people of Namibia and South Africa; PIE, Proto-Indo European
a prehistoric unrecorded language that was the ancestor of all Indo-European languages; Albanian
the Indo-European language spoken by the people of Albania; Armenian, Armenian language
the Indo-European language spoken predominantly in Armenia, but also in Azerbaijan; Illyrian
a minor and almost extinct branch of the Indo-European languages; spoken along the Dalmatian coast; Thraco-Phrygian
an extinct branch of the Indo-European language family thought by some to be related to Armenian; Balto-Slavic, Balto-Slavic language, Balto-Slavonic
a family of Indo-European languages including the Slavic and Baltic languages; Germanic, Germanic language
a branch of the Indo-European family of languages; members that are spoken currently fall into two major groups: Scandinavian and West Germanic; Uralic, Uralic language
a family of Ural-Altaic languages; Celtic, Celtic language
a branch of the Indo-European languages that (judging from inscriptions and place names) was spread widely over Europe in the pre-Christian era; Italic, Italic language
a branch of the Indo-European languages of which Latin is the chief representative; Tocharian
a branch of the Indo-European language family that originated in central Asia during the first millennium A.D.; Indo-Iranian, Indo-Iranian language
the branch of the Indo-European family of languages including the Indic and Iranian language groups; Anatolian, Anatolian language
an extinct branch of the Indo-European family of languages known from inscriptions and important in the reconstruction of Proto-Indo European; Greek, Hellenic, Hellenic language
the Hellenic branch of the Indo-European family of languages; Chechen
a northern Caucasian language spoken by the Chechen; Circassian
a northern Caucasian language spoken by the Circassian; Georgian
a southern Caucasian language with 3 million speakers and a long literary tradition; Ubykh
an extinct Caucasian language spoken exclusively in Turkey; South Dravidian
a Dravidian language spoken primarily in southern India; South-Central Dravidian
a Dravidian language spoken primarily in south central India; Central Dravidian
a Dravidian language spoken primarily in central India; North Dravidian
a Dravidian language spoken primarily in eastern India; Chad, Chadic, Chadic language
a family of Afroasiatic tonal languages (mostly two tones) spoken in the regions west and south of Lake Chad in north central Africa; Semitic
a major branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family; Hamitic, Hamitic language
a group of languages in northern Africa related to Semitic; Egyptian
the ancient and now extinct language of Egypt under the Pharaohs; written records date back to 3000 BC; Berber
a cluster of related dialects that were once the major language of northern Africa west of Egypt; now spoken mostly in Morocco; Cushitic
a group of languages spoken in Ethiopia and Somalia and northwestern Kenya and adjacent regions; Omotic
a group of related languages spoken in a valley of southern Ethiopia; closely related to Cushitic languages; Kordofanian
a group of languages spoken in the relatively small Kordofan area of the south Sudan; Niger-Congo
a family of African language spoken in west Africa; Chari-Nile
a group of Nilo-Saharan language spoken in parts of the Sudan and Zaire and Uganda and Tanzania; Saharan
a Nilo-Saharan language spoken in parts of Chad; Songhai
a Nilo-Saharan language spoken by the Songhai in Mali and Niger

Type of:: language, linguistic communication
a systematic means of communicating by the use of sounds or conventional symbols

n a manner of speaking

“he spoke with a thick tongue”

“she has a glib tongue”

Types:: sharp tongue
a bitter or critical manner of speaking

Type of:: delivery, manner of speaking, speech
your characteristic style or manner of expressing yourself orally

n a narrow strip of land that juts out into the sea

Synonyms:: spit

Type of:: cape, ness
a strip of land projecting into a body of water

n the flap of material under the laces of a shoe or boot

Type of:: flap
any broad thin and limber covering attached at one edge; hangs loose or projects freely

n metal striker that hangs inside a bell and makes a sound by hitting the side

Synonyms:: clapper

Type of:: striker
the part of a mechanical device that strikes something

n any long thin projection that is transient

“tongues of flame licked at the walls”

Synonyms:: knife

Type of:: projection
any solid convex shape that juts out from something

Launch

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