language

plural languages

1. countableA body of words, and set of methods of combining them (called a grammar), understood by a community and used as a form of communication.

   Deaf and mute people communicate using sign language.

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

   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.

   1850, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, London: H.G. Bohn, page 211

   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.

   1983, History of the College for the Deaf, 1857-1907, →ISBN, page 240

   No language could express his rage and despair.

   1900, William Beckford, The History of the Caliph Vathek, page 50

   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.

   2000, Geary Hobson, The Last of the Ofos, →ISBN, page 113

2. uncountableThe ability to communicate using words.

   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.

   1805 December, Julius Griffiths, “A Journey across the Desert”, in The Monthly Mirror, page 362

   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.

   1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light: Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, London: Rider/Hutchinson & Co., page 15

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

   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.

   1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC

   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.

   1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, section II, page 24

   "The language of photography — load, shoot, aim — it's the language of guns," she said. "They were in the sights of the camera, the same way that they were also within the sights of a gun."

   2019 January 11, Sherry Farrell Racette, quotee, “Take more selfies! Curator wants Indigenous people to flood social media with their photos”, in CBC Radio, archived from the original on 25 Aug 2025

   Synonyms: jargon

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

   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.

   2023 August 25, Timothy Scalona, “The myth of right to shelter in Massachusetts”, in The Boston Globe, retrieved 23 Jan 2026

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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.

   2012 April 22, Peter Ludlow, “The Living Word”, in The New York Times, retrieved 23 Jan 2026

   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.

   2017 September 17, John Hill, “Judge backs city on firefighters' retirement ruling”, in The Providence Journal, retrieved 23 Jan 2026

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

   body language; the language of the eyes

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

   2001, Eugene C. Kennedy, Sara C. Charles, On Becoming a Counselor, →ISBN

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

   2005, Sean Dooley, The Big Twitch, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 231

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

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

   2009, Animals in Translation, page 274

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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.

   1983, The Listener, volume 110, page 14

7. countablecomputingA computer language; a machine language.

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

   2015, Kent D. Lee, Foundations of Programming Languages, →ISBN, page 94

8. uncountableA manner of expression.

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

   1782, William Cowper, Hope

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

   The language he used to talk to me was obscene.

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

   Synonyms: wording

10. euphemisticuncountableProfanity.

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

    1978, James Carroll, Mortal Friends, →ISBN, page 500

present singular third person languages · participle present languaging · participle past languaged · past languaged

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

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

   1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI)

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

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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!

   2016, “The Vanishing of Will Byers”, in Stranger Things, season 1, episode 1, spoken by Nancy Wheeler, Karen Wheeler, Ted Wheeler, and Mike Wheeler (Natalia Dyer, Cara Buono, Joe Chrest, and Finn Wolfhard)

plural languages

1. 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, […]

   1896, William Horatio Clarke, The Organist's Retrospect, page 79