as in dialect
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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
Attackers can mimic the distinct idiolect of the target.
—Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, 18 Nov. 2023
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
Karolina Rudnicka, Scientific American, 9 July 2025
Attackers can mimic the distinct idiolect of the target.
—Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, 18 Nov. 2023
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
Noun
-
The British colonial name of New Cut was different from other nearby creeks—Wadmalaw, Bohicket, Leadenwah, Stono—all named in Indigenous dialects.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
10 Apr. 2026
-
Today, many of those words fill out the default dialect of an entire generation — regardless of race, region or class — living online.—
Moriah Humiston,
NBC news,
3 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
And, as the idiom goes, steel sharpens steel.—
Kyle Eustice,
SPIN,
7 Apr. 2026
-
An idiom is a phrase that is common to a certain population.—
Encyclopedia Britannica,
Encyclopedia Britannica,
2 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
The filles, mostly from larger cities, arrived with their own urban argots.—
Ann Foster,
JSTOR Daily,
9 July 2025
-
The basic technology is complicated enough, but the subculture—with its own particular argot and decorum—is what’s truly forbidding.—
Will Gottsegen,
The Atlantic,
10 June 2025
Noun
-
In the original Chicago slang that produced Chad, the female counterpart was typically a Trixie rather than a Stacy.—
David Faris,
TheWeek,
8 Apr. 2026
-
Mogging is internet slang for dominating someone less attractive.—
Ashley Miznazi,
Miami Herald,
27 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
Real Miami-Dade officers, often occupying background roles, interacted in character during those stretches as well, sustaining the casual banter and shared patois of a working unit.—
JP Mangalindan,
Time,
16 Jan. 2026
-
Elliott spits her verses in patois, freeing up space on the track for the drums to get some before Cartel and M.I.A. slide through. 41.—
Steven J. Horowitz,
Vulture,
11 Apr. 2025
Noun
-
Their callouts vacillated from descriptions riddled with scientific jargon to exclamations of awe and joy.—
Stephen Clark,
ArsTechnica,
9 Apr. 2026
-
This is not the kind of writing that typically appears in October, whose articles are often pocked with jargon.—
Alex Greenberger,
ARTnews.com,
6 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
The Walther Collection is incredibly wide-ranging, and features ninth- and twentieth-century vernacular photographs from the United States, Europe, Colombia, and Mexico; as well as modern and contemporary art from Japan, Germany and other places.—
News Desk,
Artforum,
9 Apr. 2026
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The movement and field of preservation and architectural history has since broadened its purview to include the vernacular, the midcentury modern and even the postmodern, yet our data and policies in Chicago remain stuck in the past.—
Elizabeth Blasius,
Chicago Tribune,
18 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
Michaels, who worked with Williams during the latter’s time in NXT, felt that Williams made a great babyface (a good guy in wrestling parlance), but needed to spend more time as a heel (bad guy).—
Joe Otterson,
Variety,
16 Apr. 2026
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In industry parlance, proponents of public power call for an electric distribution utility, which would own the local distribution grid and minimize the high costs — those delivery charges — of using higher voltage transmission lines.—
Craig D. Rose,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
10 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Idiolect.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/idiolect. Accessed 18 Apr. 2026.
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