patois

pa·tois

noun \ˈpa-ˌtwä, ˈpä-\

plural pa·tois\-ˌtwäz\

Definition of PATOIS

1

a : a dialect other than the standard or literary dialect b : uneducated or provincial speech

2

: the characteristic special language of an occupational or social group : jargon

Examples of PATOIS

1. <the medical patois that the hospital staffers used among themselves was incomprehensible to me>

Origin of PATOIS

French

First Known Use: 1643

Related to PATOIS

Synonyms: argot, cant, dialect, jargon, jive, language, lingo, terminology, patter, shop, shoptalk, slang, vocabulary

Related Words: colloquial, colloquialism, idiom, localism, parlance, pidgin, provincialism, regionalism, speech, vernacular, vernacularism; slanguage; bureaucratese, computerese, cyberspeak, educationese, governmentese, journalese, technobabble

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Other Language Terms

cognate, collocation, homonym

Rhymes with PATOIS

aba, Accra, aha, Allah, amah, Armagh, Artois, ayah, Bekaa, bourgeois, brava, chamois, Chechnya, Chita, chutzpah, compas, Degas, dolma, Dubois, Dunois, éclat, fa la, faux pas, fellah, Fermat, feta, foie gras, gaga, galah, Galois, goombah, grandma, grandpa, ha-ha, halvah, Hama, hoo-ha, hoopla, Hsia, hurrah, huzzah, Konya, Makah, Marat, markka, Maurois, mirepoix, mudra, Oita, oompah, opah, Oujda, quinoa, paisa, pasha, pooh-bah, prutah, pya, Sanaa, sangfroid, selah, Seurat, Shema, Shoah, sol-fa, supra, Syrah, ta-ta, tola, Tonghua, Ufa, Utah, Vaudois, viva, voilà, wah-wah, whoopla