WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2026
-ling,1 suffix.
-ling-, root.
-
- -ling is used to form a noun that indicates a feeling of distaste or disgust for the person or thing named:hire + -ling → hireling (= someone hired to do menial or distasteful tasks);under + -ling → underling.
- -ling is also used to form a noun that is a smaller version or example of the base word:prince + -ling → princeling;duck + -ling → duckling.
-ling-, root.
- -ling- comes from Latin, where it has the meaning "tongue.'' This meaning is found in such words as: bilingual, language, lingo, linguine, linguistic/s, monolingual.
'-ling-' also found in these entries (note: many are not synonyms or translations):
-ling
- Bjoerling
- Bloomfieldian
- Hunan
- Soong
- accusative
- acquire
- acquisition
- acrolect
- adstratum
- agglutinate
- agglutination
- agglutinative
- allocher
- allograph
- allomorph
- alternant
- alternate
- alternation
- ambiguous
- analogy
- animate
- anlaut
- anterior
- aphesis
- archiphoneme
- art
- asterisk
- aughtlins
- auslaut
- autonomous phoneme
- autonomous syntax
- aux
- back formation
- backlins
- bantling
- base
- basic vocabulary
- basilect
- benefactive
- bespeckle
- binarity
- binary opposition
- biolinguistics
- bitterling
- biunique
- biuniqueness
- blend
- brambling
- branch