official language

English

Pronunciation

  • Audio (US):(file)

Noun

official language (plural official languages)

  1. A language afforded an elevated status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction, typically for government use.
    • 2018 June 15, Harmeet Kaur, “FYI: English isn’t the official language of the United States”, in CNN[1]:
      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.
    • 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 Center[2]:
      President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order naming English the official language of the United States.

Translations