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Language
Definitions
- 1 An admonishment said in response to someone using vulgar language during a conversation.
"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!"
- 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. countable
"The English and German languages are both members of the West Germanic language family."
- 2 A languet, a flat plate in or below the flue pipe of an organ.
"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, […]"
- 3 the mental faculty or power of vocal communication wordnet
- 4 The ability to communicate using words. uncountable
"the gift of language"
- 5 the cognitive processes involved in producing and understanding linguistic communication wordnet
Show 12 more definitions
- 6 A sublanguage: the slang of a particular community or jargon of a particular specialist field. uncountable
"legal language; the language of chemistry"
- 7 a systematic means of communicating by the use of sounds or conventional symbols wordnet
- 8 The specific wording or style of a text, such as a law or a contract. uncountable
"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."
- 9 a system of words used to name things in a particular discipline wordnet
- 10 The expression of thought (the communication of meaning) in a specified way; that which communicates something, as language does. countable, figuratively, uncountable
"body language; the language of the eyes"
- 11 the text of a popular song or musical-comedy number wordnet
- 12 A body of sounds, signs or signals by which animals communicate, and by which plants are sometimes also thought to communicate. countable, uncountable
"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."
- 13 (language) communication by word of mouth wordnet
- 14 A computer language; a machine language. countable
"In fact pointers are called references in these languages to distinguish them from pointers in languages like C and C++."
- 15 A manner of expression. uncountable
"Their language simple, as their manners meek, […]"
- 16 The particular words used in a speech or a passage of text. uncountable
"The language used in the law does not permit any other interpretation."
- 17 Profanity. euphemistic, uncountable
""Where the hell is Horace?" ¶ "There he is. He's coming. You shouldn't use language.""
- 1 To communicate by language; to express in language. nonstandard, rare
"Others were languaged in such doubtful expressions that they have a double sense."
Etymology
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”). Doublet of langaj. Displaced native Old English ġeþēode.
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”). Doublet of langaj. Displaced native Old English ġeþēode.
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”). Doublet of langaj. Displaced native Old English ġeþēode.
Alteration of languet.
See also for "language"
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