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bilingual

[ bahy-ling-gwuhlor, Canadian, -ling-gyoo-uhl ]

adjective

  1. able to speak two languages with the facility of a native speaker.
  2. spoken, written, or containing similar information in two different languages:

    a bilingual dictionary; Public notices at the embassy are bilingual.

  3. of, involving, or using two languages:

    a bilingual community; bilingual schools.



noun

  1. a bilingual person.

bilingual

/ baɪˈlɪŋɡwəl /

adjective

  1. able to speak two languages, esp with fluency
  2. written or expressed in two languages


noun

  1. a bilingual person

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Derived Forms

  • biˈlingualˌism, noun
  • biˈlingually, adverb

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Other Words From

  • bi·lingual·ly adverb

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Word History and Origins

Origin of bilingual1

1835–45; < Latin bilingu ( is ) ( bi- bi- 1 + lingu-, stem of lingua tongue + -is adj. suffix) + -al 1

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Example Sentences

The scenes in Tokyo were filmed with the help of a bilingual Japanese crew.

She could hardly speak English, but she made up bilingual jokes.

Almost to a person, the French who are bilingual credit English-language television with their success.

Access to new information—literary or political—is one advantage of becoming functionally bilingual, but it is not the main one.

And this is the best reason for a writer to become bilingual: to discover what English can do that no other language on earth can.

In the bilingual legend of the Creation, Nippur seems to be regarded as a very old city.

The invasion of Bohemian workmen has virtually rendered bilingual every such Germanized district where industrialism flourishes.

One of the first acts of the new count was to secure Artois, thus reconstituting the bilingual Flanders of the previous century.

Greek was the language of the government and of trade, and in a measure the Jews were a bilingual people.

It may be assumed that, at the end of the eleventh century, the majority of the aristocracy was bilingual.

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