second language
noun1
A language that is spoken by someone but is not their mother tongue.
- My second languages are Italian and German.
- Vocabulary is a vital component of educational success in both first and second language contexts.2018, Clarence Green, James Lambert, “Advancing disciplinary literacy through English for academic purposes: Discipline-specific wordlists, collocations and word families for eight secondary subjects”, in Journal of English for Academic Purposes, volume 35, →DOI, page 105:
1 more example
- Malay is the lingua franca of several Southeast Asia countries and has been simplified by its use as a second language by non-native speakers. For example, the Malay plural is formed by repeating a word twice – buku means book and buku-buku means books.2021 April 25, John Malathronas, “Which languages are easiest – and most difficult – for native English speakers to learn?”, in CNN, archived from the original on 22 Mar 2022:
- Derived terms
- second-language acquisition
- Related terms
- first language, foreign language