n., pl., lingua fran·cas (-kəz), also linguae fran·cae (frăng'kē, frăn'sē).
- A medium of communication between peoples of different languages.
- A mixture of Italian with Provençal, French, Spanish, Arabic, Greek, and Turkish, formerly spoken on the eastern Mediterranean coast.
[Italian : lingua, language + franca, Frankish (that is, European).]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
