polyglot
1
7.4
- adjective
- /ˈpɑlɪˌɡlɑt/
:
políglota
- In all, it's a polyglot, multinational floating adventure.
Examples
-
Anxious to create a common culture among a polyglot nation of immigrants, he devoted himself in retirement.
Academic text (1998) -
A polyglot human tide engulfed the once pastoral setting at Gotham.
Fiction book (1998) -
The AP could have acknowledged that glaring reality, which has been a hallmark of the polyglot multiethnic Middle East for millennia.
Academic text (2011) -
Another way of affirming openness commends itself with less difficulty: Zenit was unabashedly polyglot, with its pages parading an astounding variety of languages.
Academic text (1997) -
The university has a polyglot community where students speak various languages from around the world.
-
As a polyglot region, the festival celebrates its cultural diversity with performances in multiple languages.
-
Her polyglot abilities allowed her to effortlessly communicate with tourists in five different languages.
Synonyms
7
4.3
Able to speak or use more than one language
How Multilingual
1
7.4
1
5.3
Surface Forms
Morphology
polyglot = poly + glot
The 'poly-' element clearly means 'many', but the second element is a bound classical form meaning 'tongue/language', so the meaning is only partly recoverable for many learners.
Etymology
Polyglot comes from the Greek parts poly 'many' and glot 'tongue' or 'language'. As an adjective, polyglot describes something written or spoken in 'many' languages, like a book that shows texts side by side in different tongues.