double Dutch

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double Dutch

/dʌb.əl ˈdʌtʃ/

Where it comes from

From double (“twice, i.e. more than”) + Dutch.

For sense 1: Dutch (which historically had a wider meaning) as a foreign language was not easily understood, so anything completely incomprehensible would be double Dutch, i.e. twice as hard as Dutch. Sense 2 expands on this meaning.

noun

uncountable Incomprehensible language or speech. “Tell him I don’t know what he’s talking about. It’s double Dutch to me.”
uncountable A language game akin to pig Latin.
Similar: all Greek to me, gibberish, gobbledygook, nonsense
uncountable A game of jump rope with two ropes and frequently two jumpers.
colloquial, uncountable Sex using a condom and the contraceptive pill at the same time.

Translations

Every language

noun incomprehensible language

Español	chino básico, un chino
Português	grego
Français	charabia
Deutsch	Kauderwelsch
Italiano	arabo, turco
Ελληνικά	κινέζικα kinézika
Русский	тараба́рщина tarabárščina, кита́йская гра́мота kitájskaja grámota

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MLA

"double Dutch." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/double%20dutch. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

double Dutch. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/double%20dutch

Chicago

"double Dutch." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/double%20dutch.

BibTeX

@misc{double_dutch_2026,
  title = {double Dutch},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/double%20dutch},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}