as in languages
the special terms or expressions of a particular group or field
the promotional team for the new computer used a dialect full of acronyms that the press found difficult to follow
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Recent Examples of dialects
Language is often a reflection of the culture that shapes it, impacting tone, idioms, dialects and even silence across regions.
—
Ryan Kolln, Forbes.com, 26 May 2026
Sperm whales communicate using group-specific dialects orders of magnitude older than Sanskrit.
—Ryan Huling, Time, 7 May 2026
The small cadre of community radio stations in coastal Bangladesh, using local dialects, provide an early-warning system against tsunamis, flooding, and cyclones.
—Encyclopedia Britannica, 23 Apr. 2026
Planting seasons, river baptisms, torture, prayers, African dialects, poverty, massacres, lynchings.
—Literary Hub, 10 Apr. 2026
Human communication with honeyguides in northern Mozambique occurs in local dialects.
—Rafil Kroll-Zaidi, Harpers Magazine, 24 Mar. 2026
Not between English and other languages but between the dialects spoken by different corners of the industry.
—Amber Nigam, Harvard Business Review, 11 Mar. 2026
Most Kurds are Sunni Muslims, but the Kurdish population has diverse religious, cultural, social and political traditions, as well as a variety of dialects of the Kurdish language.
—Lauren Kent, CNN Money, 5 Mar. 2026
How could food from India’s 23 states — with multitudinous subregions and over a thousand dialects — ever be distilled into the generic naan, dal, butter chicken, dosa and sambar?
—Kalpana Mohan, Mercury News, 4 Mar. 2026
Ryan Kolln, Forbes.com, 26 May 2026
Sperm whales communicate using group-specific dialects orders of magnitude older than Sanskrit.
—Ryan Huling, Time, 7 May 2026
The small cadre of community radio stations in coastal Bangladesh, using local dialects, provide an early-warning system against tsunamis, flooding, and cyclones.
—Encyclopedia Britannica, 23 Apr. 2026
Planting seasons, river baptisms, torture, prayers, African dialects, poverty, massacres, lynchings.
—Literary Hub, 10 Apr. 2026
Human communication with honeyguides in northern Mozambique occurs in local dialects.
—Rafil Kroll-Zaidi, Harpers Magazine, 24 Mar. 2026
Not between English and other languages but between the dialects spoken by different corners of the industry.
—Amber Nigam, Harvard Business Review, 11 Mar. 2026
Most Kurds are Sunni Muslims, but the Kurdish population has diverse religious, cultural, social and political traditions, as well as a variety of dialects of the Kurdish language.
—Lauren Kent, CNN Money, 5 Mar. 2026
How could food from India’s 23 states — with multitudinous subregions and over a thousand dialects — ever be distilled into the generic naan, dal, butter chicken, dosa and sambar?
—Kalpana Mohan, Mercury News, 4 Mar. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for dialects
Noun
-
Her work has been translated into more than thirty languages, and Time magazine named her one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
3 June 2026
-
Liveried guards greet you at the grand entrance and breeze through ‘hello’ in any number of languages.—
Condé Nast,
Condé Nast Traveler,
2 June 2026
Noun
-
By the end of the learning unit, Burton said growth in the children could be seen as their vocabularies expanded to using words such as thermometer, blood pressure and punctured.—
Tribune News Service,
Baltimore Sun,
30 Apr. 2026
-
Shallow, misogynistic speech has seeped into the daily vocabularies of many, suggesting the toxic, anti-woman values that have long inspired such rhetoric are once again calcifying into a widespread and serious problem.—
Alison Foreman,
IndieWire,
28 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
Language is often a reflection of the culture that shapes it, impacting tone, idioms, dialects and even silence across regions.—
Ryan Kolln,
Forbes.com,
26 May 2026
-
Probably because at the time many of the time signatures and chordal progressions that Miles used were over the head of a young guitar player still functioning in the blues and folk idioms.—
Steve Baltin,
Los Angeles Times,
25 May 2026
Cite this Entry
“Dialects.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dialects. Accessed 5 Jun. 2026.
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