adjective / noun

bilingual

by-LING-gwul/baɪlˈɪŋɡwʌl/

Using or able to use two languages.

The bilingual guide speaks both English and Spanish.

One confident bilingual adult speaks to two conversation partners, turning naturally between them.

Etymology

biLatintwo

+linguLatintongue, language

+alLatinpertaining to

Latin lingua meant both the physical tongue and speech or language. Combined with “two,” this gives the literal image “two-tongued,” used here for the ability to speak two languages.

In context

Nebraska Library Commission13:32

we have a a employee here who is bilingual um that's once a month and she does a Spanish story time for us

NCompass Live: Turning Your Library Around - Part 2: 4 Years Later

More examples

The notice is bilingual, with the same message in two languages.
She grows up bilingual in French and English.
The study compares bilinguals with people who use only one language.

Forms

bilingual · bilinguals

bilingualism noun — the ability to use two languages

Similar words

multilingual: Multilingual covers several languages; bilingual specifically concerns two.
fluent: Fluent describes ease in a language; bilingual describes use of two languages, without specifying identical skill in both.