Hyperlect
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The variety of a language that is spoken by the aristocracy.
"Quite distinct from received pronunciation or BBC English, hyperlect now sounds, in our more egalitarian sonic society, affected and outdated, and has largely been abandoned by the younger generation in favour of a more neutral version, either based on radio and television speak, the over-voice of documentaries, what used to be called 'speaking nicely', or a version of so-called Estuary English."
Example
More examples"Quite distinct from received pronunciation or BBC English, hyperlect now sounds, in our more egalitarian sonic society, affected and outdated, and has largely been abandoned by the younger generation in favour of a more neutral version, either based on radio and television speak, the over-voice of documentaries, what used to be called 'speaking nicely', or a version of so-called Estuary English."
Etymology
From hyper- + -lect.
More for "hyperlect"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.