linguist

linguist — noun

1. A person who either speaks several languages with great skill, or who studies th

1.nounB2
Definition

A person who either speaks several languages with great skill, or who studies the scientific rules and systems that make up human language.

Example

Antonia is a gifted linguist who speaks Japanese, Arabic, and Portuguese fluently.

polyglot: speaks multiple languages fluently

The university hired a linguist to study the grammar of the local dialect.

academic: studies grammar and dialects

Common collocations
  • gifted linguist
  • trained linguist
  • professional linguist
  • historical linguist
  • theoretical linguist
  • computational linguist
Synonyms
  • polyglot

    Refers specifically to someone who speaks many languages; does not cover the academic study of linguistics.

  • language scholar

    Broader term that can cover both facets, though less common in everyday speech.

  • grammarian

    Narrower — focuses on someone who studies or writes about grammatical rules, not general language ability.

Usage Note

The context usually clarifies which of the two main uses is intended — someone who speaks many languages, or an academic who studies linguistics. The academic meaning is more common in formal writing and university settings.

Common Mistakes

She is a linguistic who works at the university.
She is a linguist who works at the university.
'linguistic' is an adjective; the noun form is 'linguist'.
A linguist only studies foreign languages in a classroom.
A linguist may study language in many ways, including fieldwork, lab research, or historical analysis.
The word covers both practical language skills and academic research.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

Linguist is the broadest of these four terms, covering both practical multilingual ability and academic study of language. Polyglot is narrower — it only describes someone with a personal skill in many languages, with no implication of formal training in linguistics. Grammarian is more specialised still, referring to someone who writes about or prescribes grammatical rules, often with a focus on correctness. Language scholar is a less common alternative that can refer to either a polyglot or a linguistics researcher, but it lacks the professional precision of linguist. If you describe a university department head, linguist is the natural choice; if you describe a friend who casually picks up languages on holiday, polyglot fits better.

linguist ↗polyglotgrammarianlanguage scholar

Common collocations

Nouns

  • linguist by training
  • linguist by profession

Prepositions

  • as a linguist
  • trained as a linguist

Etymology

LatinFrenchEnglish

The word comes from Latin 'lingua' meaning 'tongue' or 'language', combined with the suffix '-ist' meaning 'a person who does or studies something'. It entered English in the late 1500s, first referring to someone skilled in foreign languages, and later extending to the scientific study of language.