Meanings
adjectivemetalinguistic (not comparable)
- not comparablehuman sciencesTreating words as words, rather than interacting with their meaning.
Mary is still one of the most popular girl's names. This represents a metalinguistic use of Mary: the case where we cite a linguistic expression in order to say something about it qua linguistic expression.
2002, Rodney Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum, The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language - not comparablePertaining to metalinguistics.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*me
- Proto-Indo-European*meth₂?
- Ancient Greekμετᾰ́ (metắ)
- Ancient Greekμετᾰ- (metă-)
- Englishmeta-
- Proto-Indo-European*dn̥ǵʰwéh₂s
- Proto-Italic*dn̥ɣwā
- Latindingua
- Latinlingua
- GermanLinguist
- GermanLinguistik
- Germanlinguistisch
- Englishlinguistic
- Englishmetalinguistic
From meta- + linguistic.
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Hungarian metanyelvi
- metanyelvitreating words as words, rather than interacting with their meaning
Italian metalinguistico, metalinguistico
- metalinguisticotreating words as words, rather than interacting with their meaning
- metalinguisticopertaining to metalinguistics
Polish metajęzykowy, metajęzykowy
- metajęzykowytreating words as words, rather than interacting with their meaning
- metajęzykowypertaining to metalinguistics
Portuguese metalinguístico, metalinguístico
- metalinguísticotreating words as words, rather than interacting with their meaning
- metalinguísticopertaining to metalinguistics
Cite this entry
APA
metalinguistic. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/metalinguistic
MLA
“metalinguistic.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/metalinguistic. Accessed November 4, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “metalinguistic,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/metalinguistic.
Source: metalinguistic on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.