language definition

English language definition

Pronunciation

• enPR: lăngʹgwĭj, IPA^(key): /ˈlæŋɡwɪd͡ʒ/
  • (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): (see /æ/ raising) [ˈleɪŋɡwɪd͡ʒ]

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: lan‧guage

Etymology 1

From Middle English langage, language, from Old French language, from Vulgar Latin *linguāticum, from Latin lingua (“tongue, speech, language”), from Old Latin dingua (“tongue”), from Proto-Indo-European *dn̥ǵʰwéh₂s (“tongue, speech, language”).

Noun

language (countable and uncountable, plural languages)

1. (countable) A body of words, and set of methods of combining them (called a grammar), understood by a community and used as a form of communication.

   The English language and the German language are related.

   Deaf and mute people communicate using languages like ASL.

   • 1867, Report on the Systems of Deaf-Mute Instruction pursued in Europe, quoted in 1983 in History of the College for the Deaf, 1857-1907 →ISBN, page 240:

     Hence the natural language of the mute is, in schools of this class, suppressed as soon and as far as possible, and its existence as a language, capable of being made the reliable and precise vehicle for the widest range of thought, is ignored.

   • 1900, William Beckford, The History of the Caliph Vathek, page 50:

     No language could express his rage and despair.

   • 2000, Geary Hobson, The Last of the Ofos, →ISBN, page 113:

     Mr. Darko, generally acknowledged to be the last surviving member of the Ofo Tribe, was also the last remaining speaker of the tribe's language.

   • Body definition

     Physical frame.

     1. The physical structure of a human or animal seen as one single organism. (1 of 24 body definitions)

   • Word definition

     The smallest unit of language that has a particular meaning and can be expressed by itself; the smallest discrete, meaningful unit of language.

     1. The smallest discrete unit of spoken language with a particular meaning, composed of one or more phonemes and one or more morphemes
     2. The smallest discrete unit of written language with a particular meaning, composed of one or more letters or symbols and one or more morphemes
     3. A discrete, meaningful unit of language approved by an authority or native speaker (compare non-word).

     (1 of 21 word definitions)

   • Grammar definition

     A system of rules and principles for speaking and writing a language. (1 of 9 grammar definitions)

   • Community definition

     A group sharing a common understanding, and often the same language, law, manners, and/or tradition. (1 of 8 community definitions)

   • Communication definition

     The act or fact of communicating anything; transmission. (1 of 10 communication definitions)

   • Asl definition

     Initialism of American Sign Language. (1 of 2 ASL definitions)
2. (uncountable) The ability to communicate using words.

   the gift of language

3. (uncountable) A sublanguage: the slang of a particular community or jargon of a particular specialist field.
   • 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], OCLC 16832619:

     Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language, he expressed the important words by an initial, a medial, or a final consonant, and made scratches for all the words between; his clerks, however, understood him very well.

   • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, p. 35:

     And ‘blubbing’... Blubbing went out with ‘decent’ and ‘ripping’. Mind you, not a bad new language to start up. Nineteen-twenties schoolboy slang could be due for a revival.

   legal language;   the language of chemistry

   • Sublanguage definition

     A subset of a language

   • Slang definition

     Language outside of conventional usage and in the informal register. (1 of 5 slang definitions)

   • Particular definition

     Pertaining only to a part of something; partial. (1 of 10 particular definitions)

   • Jargon definition

     A technical terminology unique to a particular subject. (1 of 3 jargon definitions)

   • Specialist definition

     Specialised.

   • Field definition

     A land area free of woodland, cities, and towns; open country. (1 of 29 field definitions)

   • Blub definition

     To cry, whine or blubber (usually carries a connotation of disapproval). (1 of 2 blub definitions)
4. (countable, uncountable, figurative) The expression of thought (the communication of meaning) in a specified way; that which communicates something, as language does.

   body language;   the language of the eyes

   • 2001, Eugene C. Kennedy, Sara C. Charles, On Becoming a Counselor →ISBN:

     A tale about themselves [is] told by people with help from the universal languages of their eyes, their hands, and even their shirting feet.

   • 2005, Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 231:

     Birding had become like that for me. It is a language that, once learnt, I have been unable to unlearn.

5. (countable, uncountable) A body of sounds, signs and/or signals by which animals communicate, and by which plants are sometimes also thought to communicate.
   • 1983, The Listener, volume 110, page 14:

     A more likely hypothesis was that the attacked leaves were transmitting some airborne chemical signal to sound the alarm, rather like insects sending out warnings […] But this is the first time that a plant-to-plant language has been detected.

   • 2009, Animals in Translation, page 274:

     Prairie dogs use their language to refer to real dangers in the real world, so it definitely has meaning.

6. (computing, countable) A computer language; a machine language.
   • 2015, Kent D. Lee, Foundations of Programming Languages →ISBN, page 94

     In fact pointers are called references in these languages to distinguish them from pointers in languages like C and C++.

   • Computing definition

     The process or act of calculation. (1 of 3 computing definitions)

   • Computer Language definition

     A language that is used internally by computers, including programming languages, machine languages, query languages, markup languages etc.

   • Machine Language definition

     The set of instructions that a particular computer is designed to execute; generated from an assembly language by an assembler, or from a high-level language by a compiler or interpreter.
7. (uncountable) Manner of expression.
   • 1782, William Cowper, Hope

     Their language simple, as their manners meek, […]

   • Manner definition

     Mode of action; way of performing or doing anything (1 of 8 manner definitions)

   • Expression definition

     The action of expressing thoughts, ideas, feelings, etc. (1 of 10 expression definitions)
8. (uncountable) The particular words used in a speech or a passage of text.

   The language used in the law does not permit any other interpretation.

   The language he used to talk to me was obscene.

   • Speech definition

     The faculty of uttering articulate sounds or words; the ability to speak or to use vocalizations to communicate. (1 of 6 speech definitions)

   • Passage definition

     Describing a bird that has left the nest, is living on its own, but is less than a year old. (commonly used in falconry)

   • Text definition

     A writing consisting of multiple glyphs, characters, symbols or sentences. (1 of 7 text definitions)
9. (uncountable) Profanity.
   • 1978, James Carroll, Mortal Friends, →ISBN, page 500:

     "Where the hell is Horace?" ¶ "There he is. He's coming. You shouldn't use language."

   • Profanity definition

     The quality of being profane; quality of irreverence, of treating sacred things with contempt. (1 of 2 profanity definitions)

Synonyms

• (form of communication): see Thesaurus:language
• (vocabulary of a particular field): see Thesaurus:jargon
• (computer language): computer language, programming language, machine language
• (particular words used): see Thesaurus:wording

Hypernyms

• medium

Hyponyms

• See Category:en:Languages

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See language/translations § Noun.

Verb

language (third-person singular simple present languages, present participle languaging, simple past and past participle languaged)

1. (rare, now nonstandard or technical) To communicate by language; to express in language.
   • 1655, Thomas Fuller, Church-History of Britain

     Others were languaged in such doubtful expressions that they have a double sense.

   • Communicate definition

     To impart

     1. To impart or transmit (information or knowledge) to someone; to make known, to tell. (1 of 10 communicate definitions)

   • Express definition

     Moving or operating quickly, as a train not making local stops. (1 of 4 express definitions)

See also

• bilingual
• lexis
• linguistics
• multilingual
• term
• trilingual
• word

Etymology 2

Alteration of languet.

Noun

language (plural languages)

1. A languet, a flat plate in or below the flue pipe of an organ.
   • 1896, William Horatio Clarke, The Organist's Retrospect, page 79:

     A flue-pipe is one in which the air passes through the throat, or flue, which is the narrow, longitudinal aperture between the lower lip and the tongue, or language. […] The language is adjusted by slightly elevating or depressing it, […]

   • Languet definition

     A tongue-shaped implement, specifically:

     1. A narrow blade on the edge of a spade or shovel.
     2. A piece of metal on a sword-hilt which overhangs the scabbard.
     3. A flat plate in (or opposite and below the mouth of) the pipe of an organ.

     (1 of 6 languet definitions)

   • Pipe definition

     Meanings relating to a wind instrument.

     1. A wind instrument consisting of a tube, often lined with holes to allow for adjustment in pitch, sounded by blowing into the tube.
     2. A tube used to produce sound in an organ; an organ pipe.
     3. The key or sound of the voice.
     4. A high-pitched sound, especially of a bird.

     (1 of 27 pipe definitions)

   • Organ definition

     A larger part of an organism, composed of tissues that perform similar functions. (1 of 6 organ definitions)

References

• language at OneLook Dictionary Search
• language in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
• language in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911.

French language definition

Noun

language m (plural languages)

1. Archaic spelling of langage.

   • Langage definition

     language: word choice and usage (1 of 2 langage definitions)

Middle English language definition

Noun

language (plural languages)

1. Alternative form of langage

Middle French language definition

Alternative forms

• langage
• langaige
• languaige

Etymology

From Old French language.

Noun

language m (plural languages)

1. language (style of communicating)

   • Language definition

     A body of words, and set of methods of combining them (called a grammar), understood by a community and used as a form of communication. (1 of 9 language definitions)

Related terms

• langue

Descendants

• French: langage
  • Haitian Creole: langaj
    • → English: langaj
  • Mauritian Creole: langaz

Old French language definition

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *linguāticum, from Classical Latin lingua (“tongue, language”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lanˈɡad͡ʒə/

Noun

language f (oblique plural languages, nominative singular language, nominative plural languages)

1. language (style of communicating)

Related terms

• langue, lingue

Descendants

• → Middle English: language
  • English: language
• Middle French: language
  • French: langage
    • Haitian Creole: langaj
      • → English: langaj
    • Mauritian Creole: langaz
• → Old Spanish: lenguage