Sociolect

//ˈsəʊ.ʃɪ.ə(ʊ).lɛkt// noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The variant of language used by a social group such as a socioeconomic class, an ethnic group, an age group, etc.

    "The French literary critic Roland Barthes has paid special attention to the relationship between the individual language ("idiolect") and the language of a collective of speech ("sociolect"). Public life is characterized by "social multilingualism." There are a number of languages, such as the language of the church, the language of the prison, the language of the children, the language of the ruling elite, and other "social languages.""

Example

More examples

"A sociolect characterizes the speech of a social group."

Etymology

From socio- + -lect, by analogy with dialect, idiolect, etc.

Related phrases

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.