Standard Lemma guide

metalinguistic

adj · 2 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

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

No pronunciation record was provided for this word.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Treating words as words, rather than interacting with their meaning.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

Topics: human-sciences, linguistics, sciences

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

adj

Meaning 2

Pertaining to metalinguistics.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: not-comparable

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *me Proto-Indo-European *meth2? Ancient Greek μετᾰ́ (metắ) Ancient Greek μετᾰ- (metă-)lbor. English meta- English linguistic English metalinguistic From meta- + linguistic.

Across languages

Translations

3 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Hungarian: metanyelvi — treating words as words, rather than interacting with their meaning
  • Polish: metajęzykowy — treating words as words, rather than interacting with their meaning
  • Polish: metajęzykowy — pertaining to metalinguistics
Real reading context

metalinguistic in complete knowledge articles