tongue — the soft movable part in the mouth used for tasting, speaking, and swallowing
Part of speech: NOUN
Definition: the soft movable part in the mouth used for tasting, speaking, and swallowing
Pronunciation (IPA): /tʌŋ/
Example Sentences
- The cat's rough tongue felt like sandpaper when it licked my hand
- My tongue got tied when I tried to say 'red leather, yellow leather' five times fast
- She speaks three languages fluently - what a gifted tongue!
tongue
NOUN[/tʌŋ/]
the soft movable part in the mouth used for tasting, speaking, and swallowing
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🎤Pronunciation
🌳Etymology
Origin
Tongue descends from Old English 'tunge', which derives from the Proto-Germanic ancestor of the Germanic language family. It is cognate with Latin 'lingua', both tracing back to the Proto-Indo-European root '*dn̥ǵʰwéh₂s', denoting the tongue as an organ of taste and speech.
Breakdown
The word is a direct descendant of Old English 'tunge' with no productive morphological breakdown; the -ue ending reflects Old English inflectional forms that have since been regularized in modern English.
🎵Rhyme
🔗Collocations
📝Examples
“The cat's rough tongue felt like sandpaper when it licked my hand”
“My tongue got tied when I tried to say 'red leather, yellow leather' five times fast”
“She speaks three languages fluently - what a gifted tongue!”
“I should have held my tongue instead of telling him his haircut looked like a pineapple”
📚Related Words
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