This is a list of notable people with a knowledge of six or more languages.
Deceased
Antiquity and Middle Ages Mithridates VI (135–63 BC), King of Pontus. According to Pliny the Elder, Mithridates could speak the languages of all of the twenty-two nations that he ruled. Cleopatra (69–30 BC), Queen of Egypt. According to Plutarch, Cleopatra spoke many languages in addition to her native language, Greek, including Latin, Egyptian, Ethiopian, Trogodyte, and the languages of the Hebraioi, Arabes, Syrians, Medes, and Parthians. Al-Farabi (870–950), Islamic philosopher. He was reputed to know seventy languages. Frederick II (1194–1250), King of Sicily and Holy Roman Emperor. He knew Sicilian, French, Latin, Greek, German, and Arabic.
Modern age, pre-18th century Mehmed II (1432–1481), Sultan of the Ottoman Empire. In addition to his native language, Turkish, he learnt Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Latin, and Greek. Elizabeth I (1533–1603), Queen of England and Ireland. She is thought to have known English, Welsh, French, Spanish, Italian, Latin, Greek, and some German. Athanasius Kircher (1602–1680), German Jesuit scholar. He was said to know twelve languages. John Milton (1608–1674), English poet. He knew English, Italian, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and to a lesser extent Dutch, French, Spanish, Aramaic, and Syriac. Wojciech Bobowski (1610–1675), Polish musician held captive by the Ottoman Empire. He is said to have known Polish, English, German, French, Italian, Latin, Ancient Greek, Persian, Arabic, Hebrew, and Turkish. Alexander Mavrokordatos (c. 1641–1709), Ottoman Greek physician and Grand Dragoman of the Porte. He knew Greek, Ottoman Turkish, Arabic, Persian, Latin, Italian, French, Old Church Slavonic, and possibly German. Dimitrie Cantemir (1673–1723), Prince of Moldavia. He spoke Romanian, Italian, Latin, Modern Greek, Russian, Persian, Arabic, and Ottoman Turkish, and had an understanding of French, Ancient Greek, and Old Church Slavonic.
18th century Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826), third president of the United States. He spoke English, French, Italian, and Latin, and could read Spanish and Greek. He may also have had some knowledge of German. William Jones (1746–1794), British philologist and jurist. He knew twenty-eight languages to varying degrees: English, Dutch, German, Swedish, Welsh, Russian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, Pali, Hindi, Bengali, Persian, Middle Persian, Zoroastrian Dari, Arabic, Hebrew, Syriac, Geʽez, Coptic, Turkish, Chinese, Tibetan, and the various forms of early Germanic preserved in runic inscriptions. John Oswald (c. 1760–1793), Scottish revolutionary. He learnt Latin and Greek in his youth, and later studied French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic. Giuseppe Caspar Mezzofanti (1774–1849), Italian cardinal. One of his contemporaries recorded that he knew seventy-two languages to varying degrees; another calculated that he knew sixty or sixty-one. Both agreed that there were thirty languages that he had fully mastered: Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Latin, English, Dutch, Flemish, German, Danish, Swedish, Russian, Polish, Czech, Illyrian, Greek, Romaic, Albanian, Ancient Armenian, Modern Armenian, Persian, Hungarian, Turkish, Hebrew, Rabbinical Hebrew, Arabic, Maltese, Aramaic, Coptic, and Chinese. Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777–1855), German mathematician. He wrote in Latin and could read Greek. In addition to his native language, German, he knew a number of modern European languages. At the age of sixty-two, he began studying Russian and mastered it within two years. Jean-François Champollion (1790–1832), French Egyptologist. He knew Latin, Greek, Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic, Hebrew, Aramaic, Syriac, Amharic, and Coptic. Helmuth von Moltke the Elder (1800–1891), Prussian field marshal. He knew seven languages, but was habitually taciturn, so that he was said to be "silent in seven languages". Among the languages he knew were German, English, Danish, French, Italian, and Turkish.
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