Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🤫 Silent or unspoken 👟 Without a tongue
tongueless

tongueless

1 9.6
Having no tongue in the mouth or in a shoe
  • adjective
  • /ˈtʌŋləs/
translation icon : sin lengua
  • In the story, the tongueless figure communicated through gestures instead of words.

Examples

  • The Nawab had broken down in tears, the beggar master was hauled off to be tortured to death, and the nine tongueless children were brought home to be instructed in sign language by Miss Compton-Divot, who became engaged to marry Mr. Bagwas the following week.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • The artist painted a portrait of a tongueless creature, capturing its silent expression.

  • The tongueless child learned to express emotions by using sign language.

Antonyms

tongued
1 7.2

Having a tongue-like part, for example in bees or boards

Compounds

tongueless frog
  • US
9.9

A frog with no tongue that lives mainly in water in Africa, Panama, and northern South America

Surface Forms

tongueless positive

Morphology

tongueless = tongue (transparent) = tongue + less

Literal combination of 'tongue' + '-less' meaning 'without a tongue', which a learner can directly derive.

Etymology

Tongueless comes from tongue, the small muscle in the mouth, and the ending -less meaning 'without'. So something tongueless is 'having no tongue' in the literal, physical sense.