Meanings
nounofficial language (plural official languages)
plural official languages
- human sciencesA language afforded an elevated status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction, typically for government use.
President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order naming English the official language of the United States.
2025 March 17, Sahana Mukherjee and Mark Hugo Lopez, “How Americans feel about making English the official language of the U.S.”, in Pew Research Center1 more example
A lot of multilingual countries promote an official language, but the United States has never done so with English. In fact, the US has no official language.
2018 June 15, Harmeet Kaur, “FYI: English isn’t the official language of the United States”, in CNN
Translations
Afrikaans amptelike taal
- amptelike taallanguage
Arabic لُغَة رَسْمِيَّة
- لُغَة رَسْمِيَّة (luḡa rasmiyya)language
Basque hizkuntza ofizial
- hizkuntza ofiziallanguage
Bengali দাপ্তরিক ভাষা
- দাপ্তরিক ভাষা (daptorik bhaśa)language
Bulgarian официа́лен ези́к
- официа́лен ези́к (oficiálen ezík)language
Catalan llengua oficial
- llengua oficiallanguage
Chinese Cantonese 官方語言 /官方语言, 正式語文 /正式语文
- 官方語言 /官方语言 (gun¹ fong¹ jyu⁵ jin⁴)language
- 正式語文 /正式语文 (zing³ sik¹ jyu⁵ man⁴)language
Chinese Mandarin 官方語言 /官方语言, 正式語文 /正式语文
- 官方語言 /官方语言 (guānfāng yǔyán)language
- 正式語文 /正式语文 (zhèngshì yǔwén)language
Czech úřední jazyk
- úřední jazyklanguage
Danish officielt sprog
- officielt sproglanguage
Dutch ambtstaal, officiële taal
- ambtstaallanguage
- officiële taallanguage
Esperanto oficiala lingvo
- oficiala lingvolanguage
Estonian ametlik keel
- ametlik keellanguage
Finnish virallinen kieli
- virallinen kielilanguage
French langue officielle
- langue officiellelanguage
German Amtssprache
- Amtssprachelanguage
Greek επίσημη γλώσσα
- επίσημη γλώσσα (epísimi glóssa)language
Hawaiian ʻōlelo kūhelu
- ʻōlelo kūhelulanguage
Hebrew שָׂפָה רִשְׁמִית
- שָׂפָה רִשְׁמִית (safá rishmít)language
Hindi राजभाषा
- राजभाषा (rājbhāṣā)language
Hungarian hivatalos nyelv
- hivatalos nyelvlanguage
Icelandic opinbert tungumál
- opinbert tungumállanguage
Indonesian bahasa resmi
- bahasa resmilanguage
Irish teanga oifigiúil
- teanga oifigiúillanguage
Italian lingua ufficiale
- lingua ufficialelanguage
Japanese 公用語
- 公用語 (kōyōgo)language
Korean 공용어
- 공용어 (gong'yong'eo)language
Latvian valsts valoda
- valsts valodalanguage
Lithuanian valstybinė kalba
- valstybinė kalbalanguage
Malay bahasa rasmi
- bahasa rasmilanguage
Norwegian Bokmål offisielt språk
- offisielt språklanguage
Polish język urzędowy
- język urzędowylanguage
Portuguese língua oficial
- língua oficiallanguage
Romanian limbă oficială
- limbă oficialălanguage
Russian официа́льный язы́к
- официа́льный язы́к (oficiálʹnyj jazýk)language
Scottish Gaelic cànan oifigeil
- cànan oifigeillanguage
Slovak úradný jazyk
- úradný jazyklanguage
Spanish idioma oficial, lengua oficial
- idioma oficiallanguage
- lengua oficiallanguage
Swahili lugha rasmi
- lugha rasmilanguage
Swedish officiellt språk
- officiellt språklanguage
Tagalog opisyal na wika
- opisyal na wikalanguage
Tamil ஆட்சிமொழி
- ஆட்சிமொழி (āṭcimoḻi)language
Thai ภาษาราชการ, ภาษาทางการ
- ภาษาราชการ (paa-sǎa-râat-chá-gaan)language
- ภาษาทางการ (paa-sǎa-taang-gaan)language
Turkish resmî dil
- resmî dillanguage
Ukrainian офіці́йна мо́ва
- офіці́йна мо́ва (oficíjna móva)language
Urdu دَفْتَری زُبان, دَفْتَری زَبان
- دَفْتَری زُبان (daftarī zubān)language
- دَفْتَری زَبان (daftarī zabān)language
Vietnamese ngôn ngữ chính thức
- ngôn ngữ chính thứclanguage
Welsh iaith swyddogol
- iaith swyddogollanguage
Cite this entry
APA
official language. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/official%20language
MLA
“official language.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/official%20language. Accessed November 3, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “official language,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/official%20language.
Source: official language on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.