language — English Dictionary

Noun

1. 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.

   Usage

   • Countable

   Examples

   Which language are you learning?

   Spanish is my native language.

   The English and German languages are both members of the West Germanic language family.

   Deaf and mute people communicate using sign language.

   More examples (6)

   He appears, and gives his advice, accompanied by a stone, which, by being put into the mouth, endows its possessor with the gift of all languages.

   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.

   No language could express his rage and despair.

   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.

   Many of us have entertained the idea of expanding our horizons. Learning a foreign language is an obvious option. It’s one that I would personally endorse: My individual circumstances were such that, by the age of 12, I could speak German, Greek and English, so languages became my passion and my hobby.

   Muksin specifically mentioned 11 extinct indigenous languages, such as Tandia and Mawes in West Papua and Papua, along with Kajeli, Piru, Moksela, Palumata, Ternateno, Hukumina, Hoti, Serua, and Nila in different areas of Maluku.

2. The ability to communicate using words.

   Usage

   • Uncountable

   Examples

   the gift of language

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   It is wholly out of the power of language to convey any idea of the blissful enjoyment of obtaining water, after an almost total want of it, during eight and forty hours, in the scorching regions of an Arabian desert, in the month of July.

   Language is the articulation of the limited to express the unlimited; it is the ultimate mystery which is the image of God, for in breaking up infinity to create finite beings, God has found a way to let the limited being yet be a reflection of His unlimited Being.

3. A sublanguage: the slang of a particular community or jargon of a particular specialist field.

   Usage

   • Uncountable

   Examples

   The language of medicine can be difficult.

   legal language; the language of chemistry

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   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.

   And ‘blubbing’ . . . Blubbing went out with ‘decent’ and ‘ripping’. Mind you, not a bad new language to start up. 1920s schoolboy slang could be due for a revival.

4. The specific wording or style of a text, such as a law or a contract.

   Usage

   • Uncountable

   Examples

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   Technological advances are notorious for exposing the open-endedness of the language in our laws, even when we thought our definitions were airtight. Lawmakers can’t anticipate everything. Indeed, you could make the case that the whole area of patent law just is the problem of deciding whether some new technology should fall within the range of the language of the patent.

   A Superior Court judge Tuesday let stand an arbitrator’s ruling that the city was allowed to pass onto its firefighters increased pension and retirement benefit costs due to changes in the state pension system. The city firefighters' union had gone to court seeking to overturn the arbitrator’s 2015 decision, claiming he’d misinterpreted the language in the contract. In his 17-page decision, Superior Court Justice Joseph Montalbano noted that by law the union had to do more than just have a good argument.

   Massachusetts often claims to be a right-to-shelter state because, on the books, it provides homeless families access to emergency shelter, free of cost. This was the purpose for which the right-to-shelter law was crafted. The language of the law, however, could not be further from the truth.

5. The expression of thought (the communication of meaning) in a specified way; that which communicates something, as language does.

   Usage

   • Countable
   • Figurative
   • Uncountable

   Examples

   body language; the language of the eyes

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

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

6. A body of sounds, signs or signals by which animals communicate, and by which plants are sometimes also thought to communicate.

   Usage

   • Countable
   • Uncountable

   Examples

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   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.

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

7. A computer language; a machine language.

   Usage

   • Countable

   Examples

   Python is a programming language.

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

8. A manner of expression.

   Usage

   • Uncountable

   Examples

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

9. The particular words used in a speech or a passage of text.

   Usage

   • Uncountable

   Examples

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

   The language he used to talk to me was obscene.

10. Profanity.

    Usage

    • euphemistic
    • Uncountable

    Examples

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

Verb

1. To communicate by language; to express in language.

   Usage

   • nonstandard
   • Rare

   Examples

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

Interjection

1. An admonishment said in response to someone using vulgar language during a conversation.

   Related words

   bilinguallexismultilingualtermtrilingualword

   Examples

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   Nancy: So... me and Barbara are gonna study at her house tonight. That's cool, right? / Karen: No, not cool. / Nancy: What? Why not? / Karen: Why do you think? Am I speaking Chinese in this house? Until we know Will is okay, no one leaves. / Nancy: This is such bullshit. / Ted: Language. / Nancy: So we're under house arrest? Just because Mike's friend got lost on the way home from... / Mike: Wait, this is Will's fault? / Karen: Nancy, take that back. / Nancy: No! / Mike: You're just pissed off 'cause you wanna hang out with Steve. / Ted: Steve? / Karen: Who's Steve? / Mike: Her new boyfriend. / Nancy: You are such a douchebag, Mike! / Ted: Language!

Noun

1. A languet, a flat plate in or below the flue pipe of an organ.

   Examples

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   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, […]

Noun

1. a systematic means of communicating by the use of sounds or conventional symbols

   Synonyms

   linguistic communication

   Broader terms

   communication

   Examples

   he taught foreign languages

   the language introduced is standard throughout the text

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   the speed with which a program can be executed depends on the language in which it is written

2. (language) communication by word of mouth

   Synonyms

   speechspeech communicationspoken communicationspoken languagevoice communicationoral communication

   Broader terms

   auditory communication

   Examples

   his speech was garbled

   he uttered harsh language

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   he recorded the spoken language of the streets

3. the text of a popular song or musical-comedy number

   Synonyms

   lyricwords

   Broader terms

   texttextual matter

   Examples

   his compositions always started with the lyrics

   he wrote both words and music

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   the song uses colloquial language

4. the cognitive processes involved in producing and understanding linguistic communication

   Synonyms

   linguistic process

   Broader terms

   higher cognitive process

   Examples

   he didn't have the language to express his feelings

5. the mental faculty or power of vocal communication

   Synonyms

   speech

   Broader terms

   facultymental facultymodule

   Examples

   language sets homo sapiens apart from all other animals

6. a system of words used to name things in a particular discipline

   Synonyms

   terminologynomenclature

   Broader terms

   word

   Examples

   legal terminology

   biological nomenclature

   More examples (1)

   the language of sociology