Two words which have the same (or similar) form and meaning in two different languages are called what?

Two words which have the same (or similar) form and meaning in two different languages are called what?

• A. Cognate
• B. Borrowing
• C. Calque
• D. False friend

Answer: (A)

Cognates are words in different languages that come from the same ancestral word, so they retain similar form and meaning today. This link to a common origin explains why the words look or sound alike and still mean roughly the same thing, which is exactly what the question is highlighting. It’s not about a word borrowed recently from another language (that would be a loanword), not about translating a phrase word-for-word (that’s a calque), and not about words that look similar but have different meanings (false friends). For example, English “mother” and German “Mutter” or Spanish “madre” and Italian “madre” illustrate cognates through shared ancestry.