as in dialect
the special terms or expressions of a particular group or field
the medical patois that the hospital staffers used among themselves was incomprehensible to me
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of patois
Elliott spits her verses in patois, freeing up space on the track for the drums to get some before Cartel and M.I.A. slide through.
41.
—
Steven J. Horowitz,
Vulture,
11 Apr. 2025
And so there’s West Indian patois and language and music and food.
—
Vanessa Franko,
Los Angeles Times,
27 Jan. 2025
There are countless examples like these, in which English scaffolding has adapted to the demands and the cultural heritage of its speakers, from Jamaican patois to Tok Pisin, of New Guinea.
—
Manvir Singh,
The New Yorker,
23 Dec. 2024
Instead, viewers are immersed in Millie’s Kingston, with dialogue spoken almost entirely in Jamaican patois, where opportunities are limited, gang violence persists and whiteness is still put on a pedestal.
—
Aramide Tinubu,
Variety,
25 Nov. 2024
See All Example Sentences for patois
Steven J. Horowitz,
Vulture,
11 Apr. 2025
And so there’s West Indian patois and language and music and food.
—
Vanessa Franko,
Los Angeles Times,
27 Jan. 2025
There are countless examples like these, in which English scaffolding has adapted to the demands and the cultural heritage of its speakers, from Jamaican patois to Tok Pisin, of New Guinea.
—
Manvir Singh,
The New Yorker,
23 Dec. 2024
Instead, viewers are immersed in Millie’s Kingston, with dialogue spoken almost entirely in Jamaican patois, where opportunities are limited, gang violence persists and whiteness is still put on a pedestal.
—
Aramide Tinubu,
Variety,
25 Nov. 2024
See All Example Sentences for patois
Recent Examples of Synonyms for patois
Noun
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Shanghainese scriptwriter Zhang interwove her personal experience into the script, with more than 50% of the dialogue spoken in the Shanghai dialect.
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Ultimately the difficulty of the task was what led him to sign on, which involved working with three different dialect coaches and studying with a Cuban professor named Rafael Rojas.
Noun
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Learning about their industry and its terminology would be a huge task for me.
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Every major technology shift creates terminology confusion.
Noun
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There is no real vocabulary and no grammar.
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Is retirement in your vocabulary at all?
Noun
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AIs can communicate with us using our language.
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Mamdani, proud of his socialist values, had developed a language for communicating a collective, interdependent vision of city life through his consistent emphasis on affordability.
Noun
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Benoit delights in language as much as her heroine, weaving Regency-era slang throughout and appending a chapter-by-chapter glossary of vulgarities.
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How did the name Go-Go being used as slang for parties come about?
Cite this Entry
“Patois.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/patois. Accessed 25 Jun. 2026.
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