How Many Languages Do You Need To Speak To Be A Polyglot?

Polyglot is a term that is commonly heard in the language learning community, but what does it actually mean?

Basically it’s the ability to speak multiple languages, but no one is quite sure on exactly how many languages makes you a polyglot, there is no exact number that everyone has settled upon to classify someone as a polyglot.

We will go through some examples below and see if we can work it out.

What Does Polyglot Mean In Ancient Greek?

When you ask anyone what a polyglot means, you usually get the response that its an Ancient Greek word, where Poly means Many and Glot means Languages, so it means “Many Languages”.

I can’t find any Ancient Greek translators, but in Modern Greek, Many Languages translates as pollés glosses (πολλές γλώσσες)

So, it’s not too dissimilar sounding and I believe this is probably where the word comes from, but that still doesn’t give us a good definition of what it actually means

Common Language Terms Used To Describe How many Languages You Can Speak

Just saying “many” is very vague. It could mean anything from 2 to 200 and beyond, so we will have to look at other commonly used terms used to help us work out how many will make you a polyglot:

Monolingual

This is when someone can only speak 1 language and this phrase is commonly used. While there is nothing wrong with this, it is certainly not a ployglot.

Bilingual

This is another very commonly used phrase and means someone can speak 2 languages.

You can argue that 2 is “many” but most people will agree that while learning 2 languages is a great achievement, it is not enough to really call someone a polyglot. 

Trilingual

I will be honest; I’ve never heard anyone say this. It makes sense, of course Tri means 3 and I am sure it is a real word and used by some people, but personally I don’t think it is that common.

I think that when someone can speak 3 languages they will start being classified as “Multilingual”.

Multilingual

As I’ve just said, I feel any one who speaks 3 languages can say they are this, but it is common for people to say 4-5 languages is the range for being multilingual and it’s not really clear if there is an upper limit for this.

Polyglot

This is where we start to get blurry; it is common to hear that if you can speak 5-11 languages, you are a polyglot.

That is fine, but my question is why or what is the differentiation between multilingual and polyglot?

(You can read more about How It Is Possible To Speak 10 Languages )

Multilingual vs Polyglot

Is there actually a difference between these two? While you can find plenty of people saying there is a difference, I would argue it’s the same thing.

Polyglot means “many languages” and well, Multi means “multiple or many” so multilingual means “many languages” too.

I really think there is no difference, it’s simple semantics and the words should be interchangeable.

I have a feeling that the word polyglot has become popular in recent years through the internet. I think people have started using the word Polyglot to stand out online and make themselves look different.

While I don’t want to take anything away from anyone, as these people can can impressively speak many languages, I think they have made the word Polyglot into more of a marketing term. It just sounds fancier than saying Multilingual.

Hyperpolyglot

Have you ever heard of the term Hyperpolyglot? This is for the small group of people who just take languages to the next level and know a vast number. You will find most people will agree that if you can speak 12 or more, you are now a hyperployglot.

That is certainly an impressive number of languages. However, I do again feel like there is some slight marketing coming into play.

Saying you are a “polyglot” when you can speak twice as many languages as some other people who are also classed as this, doesn’t seem fair, so it makes sense that you would want to have the addition of the “hyper” to help differentiate that you are on another level.

I’m also sure there are people who can speak 15 languages and only call themselves multilingual, which to me, wouldn’t be wrong.

Do Language Levels Matter To Polyglots?

When it comes to polyglots, or speaking multiple languages in general, the skill level of each language usually isn’t mentioned.

Personally I can probably speak 12 languages …by speak, I of course mean I can probably say hello in 12 languages. That’s about it!

I think it’s pretty safe to say I am NOT a polyglot, so it kind of shows that skill level should be mentioned as it is quite important when it comes to being able to say that you speak multiple languages.

Do Polyglots Need To Be Fluent In All Their Languages?

Occasionally skill levels will be mentioned and it is always assumed that the level should be quite high, if not fluent.

I am obviously a native English speaker, but I am pretty decent at French. I’m not fluent, but I can get by. I honestly wouldn’t even call myself Bilingual, but I can’t really call myself monolingual?

It is quite a grey area when it comes to knowing at what level you can say you are able to “speak a language”.

Maybe I can “speak French”; I can get by, so I guess I can. Am I just being too modest and shying away from calling myself a Bilingual?

This grey area is kind of important, especially when you hear people calling themselves multilingual or polyglots.

I think level is important, but at the same time, we cannot expect someone to have near native levels of fluency before being able to say “I can speak this language”.

If you can only string a few sentences together, you can’t speak the language. You need a bit more than this, but you still do not need to be fully fluent.  

How Many Languages Make You A Polyglot?

Getting back to the original question, we are probably not any clearer as to what makes a polyglot.

It is basically anyone who can speak a number of languages and can speak them all pretty well, but not perfectly.

For me, a polyglot and a multilingual are the same thing. If you want to call yourself one or the other, that’s up to you.

As for the number, I think once you learn one new language after your mother tongue, you are bilingual and anything after this …so 3 or above …means you can speak multiple languages, making you either a multilingual or a polyglot.

(You can read more information about If Is There A Limit To How Many Languages You Can Learn?)

It Doesn’t Matter How Many Languages You Can Speak

At the end of the day it doesn’t matter. If you can only speak 1 language or 100, it doesn’t matter. You should be learning languages for your own reasons, not to label yourself and impress other people. I am sure you will be able to find people who can speak 10 languages really well, but as they are not fluent, they will say they monolingual.

If they are happy with that, then it’s all cool. Just learn what ever languages you want and enjoy yourself that is all that matters. The number you can learn, and what you call yourself is not important.

(You can read more about – How Are Polyglots Able To Learn So Many Languages?)