language

noun

lan·guage | \ ˈlaŋ-gwij

, -wij\

Definition of language

1a : 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

2a : 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 More Example Sentences Learn More about language

Keep scrolling for more

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

The sensual urban/electro tune took two years in the making and is the first song that the EDM artist worked on for his Spanish-language album Wut Wut, set to release in September. — Billboard Staff, Billboard, "Viva Friday: Best Music Picks of the Week by Wisin, Karol G & More," 13 July 2018 Police are still having trouble sorting out all the details because of a language barrier, Zalewski said. — Karen Pilarski, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "Woman and child injured during overnight home invasion in Wauwatosa," 13 July 2018 Ivanhoe Pictures and its sister company SKE have developed international and local-language pictures for global audiences in the U.S., India, Taiwan, South Korea, and Latin America. — Saleah Blancaflor /, NBC News, "Jon M. Chu working to develop film about Thai cave rescue to prevent whitewashing," 12 July 2018 The insurgents released a lengthy missive in five languages, including English, saying the fighting would continue while foreign forces remain in Afghanistan. — Amir Shah, The Seattle Times, "Taliban declare start of spring offensive amid talks with US," 12 Apr. 2019 Smart Compose is also adding support for four new languages: Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese. — Mark Hachman, PCWorld, "Google Gmail celebrates 15 years by adding scheduled email and Smart Compose for mobile," 1 Apr. 2019 My job—my entire dream of what my life would be—centered on language, on communication. — Erica Gonzales, Harper's BAZAAR, "Emilia Clarke Had Two Brain Aneurysms and a Near-Death Surgery During Her Early Years on Game of Thrones," 21 Mar. 2019 The rules require that comments not include abusive or discriminatory language, irrelevant topics, spam, or advertising. — Caroline Hallemann, Town & Country, "The British Royal Family Issues Social Media Guidelines to Prevent Online Abuse," 4 Mar. 2019 In Illinois, the top three non-English languages spoken by the immigrant population are Spanish (1.6 million), Polish (189,000) and Chinese (96,000). — Ita Tsai, chicagotribune.com, "Internationally educated nurses to help with the US nursing shortage," 13 July 2018

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