lingua franca

lingua fran·ca  (frngk)

n. pl. lingua fran·cas (-kz) also linguae fran·cae (frngk, frns)

1. A medium of communication between peoples of different languages.

2. A mixture of Italian with Provençal, French, Spanish, Arabic, Greek, and Turkish, formerly spoken on the eastern Mediterranean coast.

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[Italian : lingua, language + franca, Frankish (that is, European).]

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lingua franca

Noun

pl lingua francas or linguae francae

1. a language used for communication among people of different mother tongues

2. any system of communication providing mutual understanding [Italian: Frankish tongue]

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

lingua franca - a common language used by speakers of different languages; "Koine is a dialect of ancient Greek that was the lingua franca of the empire of Alexander the Great and was widely spoken throughout the eastern Mediterranean area in Roman times" interlanguage, koine language, linguistic communication - a systematic means of communicating by the use of sounds or conventional symbols; "he taught foreign languages"; "the language introduced is standard throughout the text"; "the speed with which a program can be executed depends on the language in which it is written"