Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Speaking, writing, written in, or composed of several languages.
- n. A person having a speaking, reading, or writing knowledge of several languages.
- n. A book, especially a Bible, containing several versions of the same text in different languages.
- n. A mixture or confusion of languages.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Using or containing many languages; many-languaged: as, a polyglot lexicon or Bible.
- n. A book containing in parallel columns versions of the same text in several different languages. The most important polyglots are editions of the Bible in which the original Hebrew and Greek texts are given along with the chief versions in other languages. The chief polyglots are—the London polyglot (published in 1657), giving versions in whole or in part in Hebrew, Greek, Chaldee, Syriac, Arabic, Ethiopic, Latin, etc.; the Complutensian polyglot (see
Complutensian ); and the Antwerp and Paris polyglots. A recent collection is Bagster's polyglot - n. One who understands or uses many languages.
Wiktionary
- adj. Versed in, or speaking, many languages.
- adj. Containing, or made up of, several languages.
- adj. Comprising various linguistic groups
- n. One who masters, notably speaks, several languages.
- n. A publication containing several versions of the same text, or the same subject matter in several languages; especially, the Bible in several languages.
- n. A mixture of langages and/or nomenclatures
- n. programming A program written in multiple programming languages.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Containing, or made up, of, several languages.
- adj. Versed in, or speaking, many languages.
- n. rare One who speaks several languages.
- n. A book containing several versions of the same text, or containing the same subject matter in several languages; esp., the Scriptures in several languages.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. having a command of or composed in many languages
- n. a person who speaks more than one language
Etymologies
- From Ancient Greek πολύγλωττος (poluglōttos, "many-tongued, polyglot"), from πολύς (polus, "many") + γλῶττα (glōtta, "tongue, language") (Attic variant of γλῶσσα (glōssa)). (Wiktionary)
- French polyglotte, from Greek poluglōttos : polu-, poly- + glōtta, tongue, language. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“By the way, the term polyglot from its Greek roots literally means many tongues.”
“A polyglot is a speaker of two or more languages, and a hyperglot a speaker of six or more.”
Web Translations » Blog Archive » Language learning: how much is too much?
“Later he speaks to her in polyglot Chinook and insists she come home with him.”
“There be things greater than our wisdom, beyond our justice.”
“Joyce, living through the next decade in polyglot Trieste, finished the Portrait and began Ulysses in 1914.”
“Cal Galbraith crossed over with great strides, angrily, and spoke to Madeline in polyglot Chinook.”
“The energy keeps rising as the music does, as if there might be no other place in the world worth being at than this fashion party in the Centro Histórico of Mexico City with hundreds of familiar strangers—some Mexican, some British, some American, some a mixture of Mexican, and others of Latin American polyglot heritage.”
“This is an essential, engaging discussion for those interested in learning more about JRuby and the trend toward what Ford calls polyglot programming.”
“- Being a polyglot is a good thing -- we are not language bigots.”
“He'd got rid of his Luna accent, too, carefully cultivating an English one that was a kind of polyglot of cinema Cockney, late twentieth-century Transatlantic, and Liverpudlian.”
“As the faiths spread, translations of sacred texts were needed; complex "polyglot" editions developed in which translations might appear in columns beside the original text or interwoven between its lines.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘polyglot’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Iaan
dirigisme, dystopia, cacotopia, ex ante, veritable, indefatigable, curmudgeon, desultory, antediluvian, transmogrify, pendent, elongate and 272 more...
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sdamle1
echt
echt, apocalypse, resurgence, forthright, logorrhea, mercurial, torrid, exorcise, obscure, intrusive, morose, vindictive and 100 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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Technologos
Cool technology-related words.
transclusion, interpolation, hypertext, munge, arpabet, dissemination, meta, orthogonal, discombobulated, postcyberpunk, asynchronicity, octothorpe and 27 more...
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Cool sounding words
Stuff that either rolls off the tongue really well or sounds interesting.
suppurate, inveterate, douche, Constantinople, zyzygy, polyglot, serendipitous, vivisection, solypsis, conflagration, instupituous, fecundity and 52 more...
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Previous GRE
churlish, martinet, polyglot, aplomb, dissembler, hack, dissimilitude, whit, histrionics, prevarication, pithy, aphorism and 16 more...
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Linguistic Terms
Words that (mostly) only linguists know.
arpabet, protologism, diacritic, macron, macaronic, capitonym, grapheme, boustrophedon, allograph, analphabetic, idiomatic, portmanteau and 40 more...
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To Be or Not To Be
Words to live by (or not)
prescient, polyglot, fatuous, phlegmatic, mendacious, pithy, philistine, perspicacious, epicure, ebullient, probity, profligate and 9 more...
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All The Words
I enjoy collecting words, for I have no fear of them ever running out.
anacoluthon, defenestration, hypnopomp, hypnagogue, idioglossia, panopticon, tatterdemalion, abalone, caltrop, miasma, paroxysm, smalt and 491 more...
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Need to Know!
elicit, educe, refute, cogency, churlish, martinet, veritable, polyglot, dissemble, histrionics, prevarication, verbiage and 166 more...
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SoSheShall's list
slurp, coeur, slurple, glop, perp, fluarxx, ropechno, herrherr, burrduhherrherr, sloppy, cheezie balls, eccentric and 634 more...
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cuzican's Words
lexicon, tirade, innocuous, apathy, narcissist, subtle, agnostic, plethora, malleable, catalyst, pithy, irate and 116 more...
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GRE
anomaly, assuage, enigma, equivocal, erudite, fervid, placate, lucid, opaque, precipitate, prodigal, zeal and 113 more...
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Vocab
Words that I come across, and go blank, or want to clarify.
nefarious, edifice, malevolent, ostensible, folderol, bauble, livid, amnesty, calculus, saddlery, maisonette, cuisse and 423 more...
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GRE vocab
martinet, churlish, polyglot, aplomb, dissembler, histrionics, prevarication, ignominy, impugn, fastidious, trenchant, perfunctory and 155 more...
Tweets
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