natlang

N1A1T1L1A1N1G2

noun

A natural language, one that arose without intentional design.

“Proto-Indo-European was a natlang that can only be reconstructed with the help of its attested daughter languages.”

RareFirst used 1990sScrabble 8

Meanings

nounnatlang (plural natlangs)

plural natlangs

  1. informalnatural language processingA natural language, one that arose without intentional design.First known use 1990s

    Proto-Indo-European was a natlang that can only be reconstructed with the help of its attested daughter languages.

    4 more examples

    Regionalism is not a characteristic feature of natlangs, at least not in modern societies. People move around so much nowadays, that the effort is to conserve the differences rather than to conserve the similarities between different people's speech.

    1997 March 31, Tiro Typeworks, “Conlang to Natlang”, in sci.lang (Usenet)

    is it true or not true that anything that can be said in mathematical notation, however advanced it may be, must at some point or another ALSO be sayable in ordinary natlang words?

    1999 September 16, Alexander Gross, “Limitations of Computers as Translation Tools”, in comp.ai.nat-lang (Usenet)

    Don't expect me to waste my time learning a con-auxlang full of irregularities which I can already more or less understand and which won't gain me any access to other areas outside my own Romance area. I'll much rather use that time in learning the irregularities of a real natlang like, say, Arabic or Hindi, which will gain me access to the Arab and Indian areas, something which Interlingua won't do.

    2003 December 11, Javier BF, “Poll on Natlangs”, in alt.lang.artificial (Usenet)

    In the case of natlang some redundancy is set to avoid this, namely the "f-" or "few" opposes the "n-" of "none", but also "-ew" of "few" opposes "-one" of "none", so that, if ever one phonem is not well understood, the other ones are there to save the day.

    2012 June 19, Escape Landsome, “Are Natlang the best case for entropy in communication ?”, in lojban mailing list

    Antonyms: conlang, constructed language

Synonyms & antonyms

nounA natural language, one that arose without intentional design.

Origin

Syllabic abbreviation of natural language, by analogy with conlang. By surface analysis, nat (clipping of natural) + -lang.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

natlang. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/natlang

MLA

“natlang.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/natlang. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “natlang,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/natlang.

Source: natlang on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.