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language death

American  

noun

Linguistics.

  1. the complete displacement of one language by another in a population of speakers.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The fight to get a Welsh language death certificate has taken Mrs Davies all the way to the High Court, as well as turning to her constituency MP for Cardiff West.

From BBC • Oct. 16, 2025

The statistics and logic behind the trend towards language death are indeed bleak, as this article and many of the comments demonstrate.

From New York Times • Dec. 26, 2017

If language death is not natural, then we owe it to languages that have lost out from 'progress' to aid them through artificial means.

From BBC • Feb. 5, 2010

I have, however, been angered by several contributors to this discussion who have given the impression that they believe the process of language death is natural and that we shouldn't interfere.

From BBC • Feb. 5, 2010

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.