Hybridity

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Hybridity is the mixture, co‐existence, convergence, or fusion of elements from multiple categories that were or are considered different. The concept of hybridity in applied linguistics challenges essentialism, purism, and structuralism that detach language from the context of its use and explains why our languages constantly self‐evolve, reflecting the changes in our societies. Hybridity is an inherent nature of language when language is viewed not as a static set of rules and codes but as “languaging,” a socially contingent ongoing process of meaning‐making to communicate. More specifically, what makes language hybrid is “translanguaging,” language practices that knowingly or unknowingly disregard the boundary between linguistic/semiotic systems. In addition, the concept of hybridity in applied linguistics challenges English‐only monolingual norms that persist in some communities, which aggravate socioeconomic inequality. This entry overviews some of the aspects of language development, language learning, and language practices, in which linguistic hybridity serves as an essential state or plays a pivotal role, and shows that hybridity is the key to the ecology of language.</jats:p>