similect

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noun

A variety of a language spoken by people who have a different first language, with features transferred from the first language in parallel by individual speakers rather than by a cohesive group.

Scrabble 12

Meanings

nounsimilect (plural similects)

plural similects

  1. human sciencesA variety of a language spoken by people who have a different first language, with features transferred from the first language in parallel by individual speakers rather than by a cohesive group.
    1 more example

    We cannot simply equate the L1-based lects with dialects, but could speak of them instead as ‘similects’, because they arise in parallel, not in mutual interaction. In short, there is no community of similect speakers. Similects do not develop new features or new discourse practices in the same way that language communities do — in interaction, from one linguistic generation to another.

    2012, Anna Mauranen, Exploring ELF: Academic English Shaped by Non-native Speakers, page 29

Origin

Coined by Anna Mauranen in a paper in 2012, from similar + -lect, modelled on dialect, etc.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

similect. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/similect

MLA

“similect.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/similect. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “similect,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/similect.

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