idiolect

noun

Definition of idiolectnext
as in dialect

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of idiolect In this way, the Delta method captures features that vary according to their authors’ idiolects. — Karolina Rudnicka, Scientific American, 9 July 2025 Butler appears to have picked up Elvis’s idiolect, Howell says. — Erica Sweeney, Men's Health, 8 Feb. 2023 Sherif’s music exists in the space between autobiographical and his own idiolect. — Jayson Buford, Rolling Stone, 3 June 2022 And then there’s his inborn ear for every shade of human babble, here a transcendent four-hander, there a screwball travelogue, everywhere argot and idiolect and argument. — New York Times, 23 Apr. 2020 His writing conveys an extraordinary ear for accent, rhythm, and idiolect. — Maya Jasanoff, The New Republic, 22 Aug. 2019 Kathleen is relentlessly animated and quick-witted, with thick tangerine hair, steely eyes, and an endearing personal idiolect that suggests both an autodidactic reading in philosophy and economics and the gusty crudity of the merchant marine. — Gideon Lewis-Kraus, WIRED, 18 June 2018
Recent Examples of Synonyms for idiolect
  1. dialect
  2. idiom
  3. argot
  4. slang
  5. patois
  6. jargon
  7. vernacular
  8. parlance
Noun
  • Both Drake and Lütke rejected Canadian smallness, the reflex that says our cities are minor markets, our companies are acquisition targets, and our culture is a regional dialect of America's.
    — Kumaran Nadesan, Forbes.com, 29 July 2026
  • Mandarin is the language of formal schooling in China since middle school, and the result, as Li describes it, is a generation that speaks its ancestral dialect with growing unfamiliarity.
    — Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 28 July 2026
Definition of dialect
Noun
  • Holden Caulfield is made to tell his own story, in his own strange idiom.
    — Book Marks, Literary Hub, 16 July 2026
  • Please put on your batteries — a Mexican Spanish idiom that means to cowboy up.
    — Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times, 10 July 2026
Definition of idiom
Noun
  • His advice was simple, wrapped in the self-improvement argot of our times.
    — Erin Vanderhoof, Vanity Fair, 21 Apr. 2026
  • The filles, mostly from larger cities, arrived with their own urban argots.
    — Ann Foster, JSTOR Daily, 9 July 2025
Definition of argot
Noun
  • Kerr, for example, questioned Valdez’s command of English given his use of Caló, a culturally specific dialect that blends Mexican Spanish slang with English.
    — Carlos Aguilar, IndieWire, 16 July 2026
  • Their influence stretched beyond music into fashion, dance trends and slang, and as member Pimpin' noted, fans are still doing the group's signature dance more than two decades later, something a SeaWorld whale recently proved.
    — Anthony Thompson, USA Today, 23 June 2026
Definition of slang
Noun
  • In truth, plenty of New Yorkers are both privileged and come from elsewhere, but still fall into the rhythm and the patois that has long defined the city.
    — Steven Zeitchik, HollywoodReporter, 3 July 2026
  • That’s for sure when people speak patois, a vernacular version of English that’s based on a culture’s intonation.
    — Harriette Cole, Mercury News, 4 June 2026
Definition of patois
Noun
  • Apple Maps data will also inform Ford’s BlueCruise Level 2 hands-free driving feature and a new zonal architecture, industry jargon for how the electronics are physically arranged in a vehicle.
    — Andrew Nusca, Fortune, 24 July 2026
  • The book is that challenging—turgid, repetitious, and laced with technical jargon.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 21 July 2026
Definition of jargon
Noun
  • Fluent speakers of Scottish Gaelic number at around seventy thousand at most, and the great majority of those who use it as their vernacular are elderly.
    — Nikhil Krishnan, New Yorker, 20 July 2026
  • Among other things, the 1960s meetings known as Vatican II revolutionized the church’s relations with other Christians, Jews and people of other faiths and allowed Mass to be celebrated in the vernacular rather than Latin.
    — Nicole Winfield, Los Angeles Times, 2 July 2026
Definition of vernacular
Noun
  • Had Marsh taken that step — known in legal parlance as striking Basabe’s affirmative defenses — the jury would have only had to determine monetary damages against Basabe on each count, skipping the step of deciding whether to hold Basabe liable.
    — Aaron Leibowitz, Miami Herald, 15 July 2026
  • This season, Cardi B was there right on time—in fashion parlance, that’s only half an hour late.
    — José Criales-Unzueta, Vanity Fair, 8 July 2026
Definition of parlance

Browse Nearby Words

idiocy
idiolect
idiolects
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Cite this Entry

“Idiolect.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/idiolect. Accessed 31 Jul. 2026.

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More from Merriam-Webster on idiolect

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about idiolect

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