In referring to the language in which most biomedical and health research is published, there is a natural inclination to use the term "biomedical English". However, this choice of words glosses over the profound differences between general English, and the language used by those of us in biomedicine and health. Certainly our language borrows many individual words, and grammatical conventions from general English. However, most native speakers of general English find the language of biomedicine and health quite incomprehensible. Furthermore, it is possible to function quite effectively in the language of a subspecialty of biomedicine and health, without being particularly competent in general English. This is why we have decided to speak of the "languages of biomedicine and health" rather than "biomedical English". Our chosen terminology also reminds us that we are all second language learners in this complex medium, and that we all need to apply ourselves if we wish to achieve communicative competence.