tongue

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English [edit]

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Picture of a human tongue.

Etymology [edit]

From Middle English tonge, tunge, tung, from Old English tunge, from Proto-Germanic *tungǭ (“tongue”) (compare West Frisian tonge, Dutch tong, German Zunge, Danish tunge, Swedish tunga), from Proto-Indo-European *dn̥ǵʰwéh₂s (compare Irish teanga, Latin lingua, Tocharian A/B känt/kantwo, Lithuanian liežùvis, Polish język 'language, tongue', Armenian լեզու (lezu), Sanskrit जिह्वा (jihvā́)).

Alternative forms [edit]

Pronunciation [edit]

Noun [edit]

tongue (plural tongues)

  1. The flexible muscular organ in the mouth that is used to move food around, for tasting and that is moved into various positions to modify the flow of air from the lungs in order to produce different sounds in speech.
  2. A language.
    He was speaking in his native tongue.
  3. (religion, often in the plural) Glossolalia.
  4. In a shoe, the flap of material that goes between the laces and the foot, so called because it resembles a tongue in the mouth.
  5. Any large or long physical protrusion on an automotive, a machine part or any other part that fits into a long groove on another part.
  6. (figuratively) An individual point of flame from a fire.
    • 1895, H. G. Wells, The Time Machine Chapter XI
      Now, in this decadent age the art of fire-making had been altogether forgotten on the earth. The red tongues that went licking up my heap of wood were an altogether new and strange thing to Weena.

Synonyms [edit]

Translations [edit]

organ
language — see language
flap in a shoe

Verb [edit]

tongue (third-person singular simple present tongues, present participle tonguing, simple past and past participle tongued)

  1. (music) On a wind instrument, to articulate a note by starting the air with a tap of the tongue, as though by speaking a 'd' or 't' sound (alveolar plosive).
  2. (obsolete) To talk; to prate.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Dryden to this entry?)
  3. (slang) to kiss involving the touching of both tongues, and/or licking.
  4. To manipulate with the tongue.
    Playing wind instruments involves tonguing on the reed or mouthpiece.

Derived terms [edit]

Terms derived from the noun or verb tongue

Anagrams [edit]

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