What is the most widely spoken language in the world?

The most widely spoken language in the world is Mandarin. While English is recognized as an international lingua franca and is spoken by many people across the globe, when considering native speakers as well as total speakers, Mandarin leads the pack. Mandarin Chinese has over a billion native speakers and is the primary language of China, the most populous country. This makes it the dominant language globally in terms of the number of people who speak it as their first language.

English, while commonly used in international business, diplomacy, and on the internet, does not surpass Mandarin in terms of total speakers when both native and second-language speakers are considered. Other languages, such as Spanish and French, have significant numbers of speakers but do not come close to the total number of Mandarin speakers or the native speaker count of Mandarin.

Therefore, focusing on the context of total speakers, Mandarin is correctly identified as the most widely spoken language in the world.