POLYGLOT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does polyglot mean? 

• POLYGLOT (noun)
  The noun POLYGLOT has 1 sense:

1. a person who speaks more than one language

  Familiarity information: POLYGLOT used as a noun is very rare.

• POLYGLOT (adjective)
  The adjective POLYGLOT has 1 sense:

1. having a command of or composed in many languages

  Familiarity information: POLYGLOT used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• POLYGLOT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person who speaks more than one language

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

linguist; polyglot

Hypernyms ("polyglot" is a kind of...):

individual; mortal; person; somebody; someone; soul (a human being)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "polyglot"):

bilingual; bilingualist (a person who speaks two languages fluently)

transcriber; translator (a person who translates written messages from one language to another)

Instance hyponyms:

Greenberg; Joseph Greenberg (United States linguist who studied the historical relations among 5,000 languages (1916-2001))

Harris; Zellig Harris; Zellig Sabbatai Harris (United States linguist (born in Ukraine) who developed mathematical linguistics and interpreted speech and writing in a social context (1909-1992))

Derivation:

polyglot (having a command of or composed in many languages)

• POLYGLOT (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Having a command of or composed in many languages

Context example:

a polyglot Bible contains versions in different languages

Similar:

multilingual (using or knowing more than one language)

Derivation:

polyglot (a person who speaks more than one language)

 Context examples 

The captain swore polyglot—very polyglot—polyglot with bloom and blood; but he could do nothing.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

He talked only when he had to, and then his speech was like his walk to the table, filled with jerks and halts as he groped in his polyglot vocabulary for words, debating over words he knew were fit but which he feared he could not pronounce, rejecting other words he knew would not be understood or would be raw and harsh.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The captain swear again, polyglot, and the thin man make him bow, and thank him, and say that he will so far intrude on his kindness as to come aboard before the sailing.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I could hear a lot of words often repeated, queer words, for there were many nationalities in the crowd; so I quietly got my polyglot dictionary from my bag and looked them out.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

My friends of the thirst and the language that was of bloom and blood laughed, as they told how the captain's swears exceeded even his usual polyglot, and was more than ever full of picturesque, when on questioning other mariners who were on movement up and down on the river that hour, he found that few of them had seen any of fog at all, except where it lay round the wharf.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)