Meanings
plural familects
- human sciencesThe language variant used by a family when speaking among themselves.
Near-synonym: microdialect
4 more examples
A familect is, as I mentioned before, a kind of microdialect.
1973, Robert Brodie MacLeod, edited by David Krech, The MacLeod symposium, June 2-3, 1972, Dept. of Psychology, Cornell University, page 75David Crystal, who wrote the book's afterword, expanded on what he described as these dialects of the home, or familects, in his blog: [...]
2013 July 19, Harriet Powney, “Speaking it in the family”, in The GuardianSome followers even tweet back in aliebn-speak: a spirit of friendly linguistic play that's more like a familect than a stuffy Oxford Common Room.
2019, Gretchen McCulloch, “Language and Society”, in Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language, Penguin, →ISBN, page 60If a familect exists within a family unit, then an online community’s fanilect expands exponentially, like invisible strings across distance and time.
2023 February 3, Pia Ceres, “Quoting Taylor Swift Lyrics Is an Actual Linguistic Thing”, in Wired, San Francisco, C.A.: Condé Nast Publications, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 19 May 2023Synonyms: ecolect, familiolect, microdialect
Synonyms & antonyms
nounThe language variant used by a family when speaking among themselves.
Origin
Translations
French familiolecte
- familiolecteTranslations
Polish familiolekt
- familiolektTranslations
Cite this entry
familect. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/familect
“familect.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/familect. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “familect,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/familect.
Source: familect on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.