Definition of "lingua franca" []

• A medium of communication between peoples of different languages. (noun)
• A mixture of Italian with Provençal, French, Spanish, Arabic, Greek, and Turkish, formerly spoken on the eastern Mediterranean coast. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Instead, they employed the well-established Commonwealth lingua franca known as symbospeech."
• "France has some first-class multinationals, Germany's work force and engineering firms can compete with the world's best, 30 Swedish companies are listed among Forbes Global 2000, Italy is a world leader in design, Ireland is blessed with an educated work force that speaks English, the lingua franca of world trade."
• "The boy's name was Anigh and, though he spoke the Melnibonéan-derived lingua franca of the Young Kingdoms, his accent was so thick it was sometimes impossible to understand all he said."