Phrase guide

linguistic imbalance

noun · 3 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

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1

noun

Meaning 1

The levels of official use or representation of languages that are perceived not to reflect their use in the population.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Examples

  • 2011 Pierre Anctil, "Reasonable Accommodation in the Canadian Legal Context: A Mechanism for Managing Diversity or a Source of Tension?" in H. Adelman and P. Anctil, eds., Religion, Culture, and the State: Reflections on the Bouchard-Taylor Report, University of Toronto Press, 2011. Being vulnerable as an official language minority within the Canadian federation, the Québec francophones thus reaffirmed their commitment to the values of pluralism and diversity while also taking measures to prevent the worsening, through the anglicization of immigrants, of the existing historical linguistic imbalance within Canada.
  • 2012 J. McDonagh, et al, "Sustainability and Getting the Balance Right in Rural Ireland," in T. Varley et al, eds., A Living Countryside?: The Politics of Sustainable Development in Rural Ireland, Business and Economics, 2012. Linguistic imbalance, reflecting and [sic] the growing dominance of English and the continuing decline of Irish, are addressed in Mac Donnacha and Ó Giollagáin's paper where the nature of this decline, its extent and attempts at countering it are all explored.
  • 2014 M. Bielenia-Grajewska, "Linguicism," in L.H. Cousins, ed., Encyclopedia of Human Services and Diversity, Sage Publications, 2014. Another type is informational linguicism, which is connected with limited access to information caused by linguistic imbalance in a given setting.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

The differential in skills of a polyglot among the languages they know.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

Topics: human-sciences, linguistics, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

noun

Meaning 3

The use of terminology in a language that treats different social categories (such as gender) unequally.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: countable, uncountable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

No etymology was provided for this word.