Main Entry: lan·guage

Pronunciation: \ˈlaŋ-gwij, -wij\

Function: noun

Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French langage, from lange, langue tongue, language, from Latin lingua — more at tongue

Date: 14th century

1 a : the words, their pronunciation, and the methods of combining them used and understood by a community b (1) : audible, articulate, meaningful sound as produced by the action of the vocal organs (2) : a systematic means of communicating ideas or feelings by the use of conventionalized signs, sounds, gestures, or marks having understood meanings (3) : the suggestion by objects, actions, or conditions of associated ideas or feelings <language in their very gesture — Shakespeare> (4) : the means by which animals communicate (5) : a formal system of signs and symbols (as FORTRAN or a calculus in logic) including rules for the formation and transformation of admissible expressions (6) : machine language 1
2 a : form or manner of verbal expression; specifically : style b : the vocabulary and phraseology belonging to an art or a department of knowledge c : profanity
3 : the study of language especially as a school subject
4 : specific words especially in a law or regulation

[language table]