Library / English Dictionary

TONGUE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Metal striker that hangs inside a bell and makes a sound by hitting the side

Synonyms:

clapper; tongue

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

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

striker (the part of a mechanical device that strikes something)

Holonyms ("tongue" is a part of...):

bell (a hollow device made of metal that makes a ringing sound when struck)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The flap of material under the laces of a shoe or boot

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

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

flap (any broad thin and limber covering attached at one edge; hangs loose or projects freely)

Holonyms ("tongue" is a part of...):

boot (footwear that covers the whole foot and lower leg)

shoe (footwear shaped to fit the foot (below the ankle) with a flexible upper of leather or plastic and a sole and heel of heavier material)

Sense 3

Meaning:

A mobile mass of muscular tissue covered with mucous membrane and located in the oral cavity

Synonyms:

clapper; glossa; lingua; tongue

Classified under:

Nouns denoting body parts

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

organ (a fully differentiated structural and functional unit in an animal that is specialized for some particular function)

articulator (a movable speech organ)

Meronyms (parts of "tongue"):

gustatory organ; taste bud; tastebud (an oval sensory end organ on the surface of the tongue)

Holonyms ("tongue" is a part of...):

mouth; oral cavity; oral fissure; rima oris (the opening through which food is taken in and vocalizations emerge)

pharynx; throat (the passage to the stomach and lungs; in the front part of the neck below the chin and above the collarbone)

Derivation:

tongue (lick or explore with the tongue)

tongue (articulate by tonguing, as when playing wind instruments)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A human written or spoken language used by a community; opposed to e.g. a computer language

Synonyms:

natural language; tongue

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

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

language; linguistic communication (a systematic means of communicating by the use of sounds or conventional symbols)

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

Nilo-Saharan; Nilo-Saharan language (a family of East African languages spoken by Nilotic peoples from the Sahara south to Kenya and Tanzania)

Niger-Kordofanian; Niger-Kordofanian language (the family of languages that includes most of the languages spoken in Africa south of the Sahara; the majority of them are tonal languages but there are important exceptions (e.g., Swahili or Fula))

Afrasian; Afrasian language; Afro-Asiatic; Afroasiatic; Afroasiatic language; Hamito-Semitic (a large family of related languages spoken both in Asia and Africa)

Dravidian; Dravidian language; Dravidic (a large family of languages spoken in south and central India and Sri Lanka)

Caucasian; Caucasian language (a number of languages spoken in the Caucasus that are unrelated to languages spoken elsewhere)

Cassite; Kassite (an ancient language spoken by the Kassites)

Elamite; Elamitic; Susian (an extinct ancient language of unknown affinities; spoken by the Elamites)

Basque (the language of the Basque people; of no known relation to any other language)

Ural-Altaic (a (postulated) group of languages including many of the indigenous languages of Russia (but not Russian))

Indo-European; Indo-European language; Indo-Hittite (the family of languages that by 1000 BC were spoken throughout Europe and in parts of southwestern and southern Asia)

Khoisan; Khoisan language (a family of languages spoken in southern Africa)

Papuan; Papuan language (any of the indigenous languages spoken in Papua New Guinea or New Britain or the Solomon Islands that are not Malayo-Polynesian languages)

Austronesian; Austronesian language (the family of languages spoken in Australia and Formosa and Malaysia and Polynesia)

Hmong; Hmong language; Miao (a language of uncertain affiliation spoken by the Hmong)

Austro-Asiatic; Austro-Asiatic language; Munda-Mon-Khmer (a family of languages spoken in southern and southeastern Asia)

Sino-Tibetan; Sino-Tibetan language (the family of tonal languages spoken in eastern Asia)

Chukchi; Chukchi language (an indigenous and isolated language of unknown origin spoken by the Chukchi that is pronounced differently by men and women)

Eskimo-Aleut; Eskimo-Aleut language (the family of languages that includes Eskimo and Aleut)

American-Indian language; American Indian; Amerind; Amerindian language; Indian (any of the languages spoken by Amerindians)

creole (a mother tongue that originates from contact between two languages)

tonal language; tone language (a language in which different tones distinguish different meanings)

first language; maternal language; mother tongue (one's native language; the language learned by children and passed from one generation to the next)

Sense 5

Meaning:

A manner of speaking

Example:

she has a glib tongue

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

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

delivery; manner of speaking; speech (your characteristic style or manner of expressing yourself orally)

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

sharp tongue (a bitter or critical manner of speaking)

Sense 6

Meaning:

The tongue of certain animals used as meat

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

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

organs; variety meat (edible viscera of a butchered animal)

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

beef tongue (the tongue of a cow eaten as meat)

calf's tongue (the tongue of a calf eaten as meat)

Sense 7

Meaning:

A narrow strip of land that juts out into the sea

Synonyms:

spit; tongue

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

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

cape; ness (a strip of land projecting into a body of water)

Meronyms (substance of "tongue"):

sand (a loose material consisting of grains of rock or coral)

Sense 8

Meaning:

Any long thin projection that is transient

Example:

rifles exploded quick knives of fire into the dark

Synonyms:

knife; tongue

Classified under:

Nouns denoting two and three dimensional shapes

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

projection (any solid convex shape that juts out from something)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Lick or explore with the tongue

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "tongue" is one way to...):

lap; lick (pass the tongue over)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

tongue (a mobile mass of muscular tissue covered with mucous membrane and located in the oral cavity)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Articulate by tonguing, as when playing wind instruments

Classified under:

Verbs of sewing, baking, painting, performing

Hypernyms (to "tongue" is one way to...):

play; spiel (replay (as a melody))

Domain category:

music (musical activity (singing or whistling etc.))

music ((music) the sounds produced by singers or musical instruments (or reproductions of such sounds))

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "tongue"):

double tongue; triple-tongue (play fast notes on a wind instrument)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

tongue (a mobile mass of muscular tissue covered with mucous membrane and located in the oral cavity)

Credits

 Context examples: 

A non-metastasizing neoplasm that arises from the base of the tongue.

(Benign Posterior Tongue Neoplasm, NCI Thesaurus)

“I am ashamed of my long tongue. Let us make a bargain never to refer to this again.”

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

You, replied the doctor; for you cannot hold your tongue.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Surgery involving partial excision of the tongue.

(Partial Excision of Tongue, NCI Thesaurus)

What sort of English king is it who cannot lay his tongue to a word of English?

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

This category includes the eyes, ears, nose, and tongue.

(Organ of Special Sense, NCI Thesaurus)

A disorder characterized by a sensation of marked discomfort in the mouth, tongue or lips.

(Oral Pain, NCI Thesaurus/CTCAE)

The most common site of involvement is the head and neck, particularly the orbit and tongue.

(Childhood Alveolar Soft Part Sarcoma, NCI Thesaurus)

Removal of tissue from the tongue for microscopic examination.

(Biopsy of Tongue, NCI Thesaurus)

A non-metastasizing neoplasm that arises from the tongue.

(Benign Tongue Neoplasm, NCI Thesaurus)