tongue

noun · verb

Simple meaning

Such an organ, as taken from animals and used for food.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

tuhng

US device voice

IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈtʌŋ

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

countableuncountable
Such an organ, as taken from animals and used for food (especially from cows).
Any similar organ, such as the lingual ribbon, or odontophore, of a mollusk; the proboscis of a moth or butterfly; or the lingua of an insect.
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.
A manner of speaking, often habitually.
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).
The power of articulate utterance; speech generally.

verb

To protrude in relatively long, narrow sections.
Lick or explore with the tongue
To join by means of a tongue and groove.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty: B1 · Intermediate
Frequency: Common
Typical Use: Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Such an organ, as taken from animals and used for food (especially from cows).

Used this way, tongue is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone: Neutral
Formality: Neutral
Intensity: Not strongly marked
How common: Moderately common
Connotation: Matter-of-fact
Usage feel: Neutral and straightforward

Nearby words

glossa , rarer, so it draws attention

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use tongue

“Tongues of flame licked at the walls.”noun

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

mother tonguenative tongueenglish tongueforeign tonguelatin tongue

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

tonguedadjectiveInflected form
Provided with or resembling a tongue.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

tongue depressornounCompound term
A thin depressor used to press the tongue down during an examination of the mouth and throat.
tongue fernnounCompound term
East Asian fern having fronds shaped like tongues.
tongue-fishnounCompound term
Left-eyed marine flatfish whose tail tapers to a point.
tongue-flowernounCompound term
Orchid having blue to purple flowers with tongue-shaped or strap-shaped protuberances (calli) at the lip base.
tongue-in-cheekadverbCompound term
In a bantering fashion.
tongue-lashingnounCompound term
Rebuking a person harshly.

Related words

Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.

bristly oxtonguenounRelated term
Widespread European weed with spiny tongue-shaped leaves and yellow flowers.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.