monolingual

adjective

mono·​lin·​gual ˌmä-nə-ˈliŋ-gwəl How to pronounce monolingual (audio)
ˌmō-
-ˈliŋ-gyə-wəl
: having or using only one language
monolingual noun

Examples of monolingual in a Sentence

He regrets being monolingual and wishes he were bilingual.
Recent Examples on the Web
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Court records also say that he was reviewed by medical staff for competency and, despite being a monolingual Spanish speaker, allegedly signed English-language documents indicating consent to removal. Billal Rahman, MSNBC Newsweek, 1 Apr. 2026 Experts say that among the affected are monolingual speakers of Spanish, Chinese, Mandarin and Mixteco; some foragers have mistaken the death cap mushroom for edible fungi from their native countries. Kevinisha Walker, Los Angeles Times, 9 Feb. 2026 The Spanish-specific courses Cancer CAREpoint offers helped comfort her monolingual mother, who had been her caretaker and had always been somewhat apprehensive of accepting services from the government. Katie Lauer, Mercury News, 4 Dec. 2025 This might be one of the reasons why bilingual individuals show a delay of four to five years of dementia symptom onset compared to monolingual individuals. Dr. Baibing Chen, Contributor, CNBC, 11 Mar. 2025 See All Example Sentences for monolingual

Word History

First Known Use

1879, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of monolingual was in 1879

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Cite this Entry

“Monolingual.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/monolingual. Accessed 6 Apr. 2026.

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