language

noun

lan·​guage ˈlaŋ-gwij 

-wij

1

a

: the words, their pronunciation, and the methods of combining them used and understood by a community

studied the French language

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

the language of mathematics

(3)

: the suggestion by objects, actions, or conditions of associated ideas or feelings

language in their very gesture

—William Shakespeare

(4)

: the means by which animals communicate

the language of birds

(5)

: a formal system of signs and symbols (such as FORTRAN or a calculus in logic) including rules for the formation and transformation of admissible expressions

(6)

: machine language sense 1

2

a

: form or manner of verbal expression

specifically : style

the beauty of Shakespeare's language

b

: the vocabulary and phraseology belonging to an art or a department of knowledge

the language of diplomacy

medical language

c

: profanity

shouldn't of blamed the fellers if they'd cut loose with some language

—Ring Lardner

3

: the study of language especially as a school subject

earned a grade of B in language

4

: specific words especially in a law or regulation

The police were diligent in enforcing the language of the law.

Synonyms

• lingo
• mother tongue
• speech
• tongue
• vocabulary

Examples of language in a Sentence

How many languages do you speak?

French is her first language.

The book has been translated into several languages.

He's learning English as a second language.

a new word that has recently entered the language

the formal language of the report

the beauty of Shakespeare's language

She expressed her ideas using simple and clear language.

He is always careful in his use of language.

Recent Examples on the Web

Apart from any constitutional questions, there is also the problem that confessional language issued by the secretary of state in his official capacity distorts the message of Easter. —Chloe Breyer, New York Daily News, 21 Apr. 2025

Pope Francis preached the same gospel in different language. —John Hope Bryant, Time, 21 Apr. 2025

Subtitles are easy to add to film, but, for the most part, they were used only when actors and audiences spoke different languages. —David Owen, New Yorker, 21 Apr. 2025

On April 14, the parliament voted to amend the country's constitution with similar language. —Rob Schmitz, NPR, 20 Apr. 2025

Word History

Etymology

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

First Known Use

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Phrases Containing language

• assembly language
• bad language
• body language
• contact language
• figurative language
• gesture language
• hypertext markup language
• language arts
• language barrier
• language lab
• language laboratory
• language model
• large language model
• living language
• love language
• machine language
• markup language
• mind one's tongue/language
• object language
• ordinary-language philosophy
• play with words/language
• Romance language
• scripting language
• second language
• sign language
• source language
• speak/talk the same language
• strong language
• sub-language
• target language
• tone language
• trade language
• watch one's language
• watch one's language/mouth/tongue
• whole language

Rhymes for language

• interlanguage
• metalanguage

Kids Definition

language

noun

lan·​guage ˈlaŋ-gwij 

1

a

: the words, their pronunciation, and the methods of combining them used and understood by a large group of people

b

: a means of communicating ideas

sign language

2

: the means by which animals communicate or are thought to communicate with each other

language of the bees

3

: a system of signs and symbols and rules for using them that is used to carry information

BASIC is a computer language

4

: the way in which words are used

strong language

5

: the words and expressions of a particular group or field

the language of medicine

6

: the study of language

Etymology

Middle English language "language," from early French language (same meaning), from langue "language, tongue," from Latin lingua "tongue, language"

Word Origin

The tongue plays an important part in human speech. Different sounds are made by different positions of the tongue. The tongue and speech are so closely connected that in many languages the word that means "tongue" also means "language." This is true in English, as when we say "she spoke a foreign tongue." It was also true in Latin, where the word lingua meant both "tongue" and "language." From the Latin lingua came the early French langue, meaning "tongue, language," which gave rise to the early French word language. The English word language comes directly from this early French word.