argot

noun ar·got \ ˈär-gət , -(ˌ)gō \

Updated on: 5 Mar 2018

Definition of argot

: the language used by a particular type or group of people : an often more or less secret vocabulary and idiom peculiar to a particular group

He has been bombarded by thousands of scathing messages—known as being "flamed" in the argot of cyberspace.
—Peter H. Lewis

See argot defined for English-language learners

See argot defined for kids

argot was our Word of the Day on 05/16/2012. Hear the podcast!

Examples of argot in a Sentence

groups communicating in their own secret argots
used the argot of figure skaters

Recent Examples of argot from the Web

In the traditional account of this process, a creole most often arose from a pidgin: a simple, improvised argot drawing most of its words from the (usually European) languages of the masters.

— The Economist, "JohnsonThe painful origins of many creole languages," 1 Feb. 2018
Those unfamiliar with creoles, thinking them mere patois, argot or vernacular, are missing a glorious display of the ingenuity of those speakers who turned old languages into something brilliantly new.

— The Economist, "JohnsonThe painful origins of many creole languages," 1 Feb. 2018
The best of these stories double as primers on the curious, whispered rituals of the West Wing, its coded self-assertions and exclusionary argot.

— katy waldman, Slate Magazine, "This memoir by a former White House speechwriter (and joke writer) is irresistibly charming. It also feels like the setup for a grim cosmic punch line.," 29 Sep. 2017
Still, the statement did at least mark a telltale pivot away from the site’s native argot of technological utopianism, which continually worked to present itself as a neutral platform that more-or-less spontaneously brought the world together.

— jeet heer, New Republic, "Facebook’s Promise of Community Is a Lie," 7 Oct. 2017
If ever a company was self-consciously focused on making an impact—changing the world, in the argot of Fortune’s annual list—it’s Apple (aapl, -1.59%).

— adam lashinsky, Fortune, "Tim Cook on How Apple Champions the Environment, Education, and Health Care," 11 Sep. 2017
Pope Francis has an argot of displeasure all his own.

— william mcgurn, WSJ, "Speak for Venezuela, Pope Francis," 7 Aug. 2017
During her time at Breitbart, McHugh consistently made racially charged statements on her Twitter feed and used the argot of the alt-right twittersphere.

— rosie gray, The Atlantic, "Why Breitbart Fired an Editor for a Tweet," 7 June 2017
This resulted in little Solomon acquiring an Aussie accent that required him to take special classes and lost the argot when the family moved back to the USA and the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

— mark purdy, The Mercury News, "Purdy: Here’s why 49ers GM Lynch decided on Thomas over Trubisky–and it was an easy call," 27 Apr. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'argot.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

We borrowed argot from French in the mid-1800s, although our language already had several words covering its meaning. There was jargon, which harks back to Anglo-French by way of Middle English (where it meant "twittering of birds"); it had been used for specialized (and often obscure or pretentious) vocabulary since the 1600s. There was also lingo, which had been around for almost a hundred years, and which is connected to the Latin word lingua ("language"). English novelist and lawyer Henry Fielding used it of "court gibberish" - what we tend to call legalese. In fact, the suffixal ending -ese is a newer means of indicating arcane vocabulary. One of its very first applications at the turn of the 20th century was for "American 'golfese.'"