ustnym

Ustnym is a Latin-script form encountered in Slavic linguistic contexts, most notably Polish and Russian, and it relates to the idea of something spoken or oral.

In Polish, ustnym is the instrumental singular form of the adjective ustny, meaning “oral” or “spoken.” It appears in phrases such as egzamin ustnym (“oral examination”) and język ustny (“spoken language”). The form is used to describe things produced by speech rather than by writing, and it contrasts with pisemny (“written”).

In Russian and other Cyrillic-script languages, the corresponding adjective устный uses the instrumental form устным, which is transliterated as ustnym. It occurs in constructions such as устным способом (“by oral means”) or устным экзаменом (“an oral exam”), depending on the syntactic context. Like Polish ustnym, устным is a declined form, not a standalone noun.

Usage and note: ustnym is not a separate lexical entry but a declined form of an adjective meaning “oral.” Its use spans education, linguistics, and general description of speech-based rather than written modalities. In bilingual or multilingual texts, the transliteration ustnym may appear when rendering Russian or other Cyrillic forms in Latin script.

See also: oral examination, spoken language, written language, linguistic terminology.