as in dialect
Related Words
Relevance
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
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
-
Nearby is Fwala, a Qatari dialect word for a dessert assortment served to guests.—
Rachel Morris,
Condé Nast Traveler,
16 Feb. 2026
-
Steven Gebelin, who represented Puig in 2021 and 2022, testified at trial that his then-client tried to be helpful during the interview but, because the interpreter’s Spanish dialect differed from Puig’s, his answers were translated poorly.—
Steve Henson,
Los Angeles Times,
6 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
Those books introduced me to a vision of American teenage life and taught me the rhythms and idioms of American English, nuances that would later replace my Britishisms and shape my career as a journalist.—
Faith Karimi,
CNN Money,
17 Feb. 2026
-
Next to the particularities of place—the Midwest, the South—or enmeshed with it, are the particularities of language, of idiom, and ways of saying.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
17 Feb. 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 1993, Green started compiling 500 years of English slang by sifting through mountains of primary sources.—
Andrew Paul,
Popular Science,
19 Feb. 2026
-
Blending Milanese slang with French and Arabic, his rhymes should bring a fresh energy to the event.—
Allison DeGrushe,
Entertainment Weekly,
5 Feb. 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
-
Over the course of the internet era, platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest have encouraged everyday people to mood-board their life, and creative-director jargon—curate, worlds—has gone mainstream.—
Spencer Kornhaber,
The Atlantic,
24 Feb. 2026
-
The name is a bit of a mouthful, and the organization itself deploys a fair amount of jargon to describe its function.—
Dave Boucher,
Freep.com,
22 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
Sticky toffee pudding isn’t a pudding at all (at least, in the American sense, in British vernacular, pudding means dessert).—
Melissa Kravitz Hoeffner,
Martha Stewart,
26 Feb. 2026
-
Viral videos are among the contemporary references—along with stripper vernacular, self-driving cars, and Juicy Couture—in Age of Content, a 2023 work by the collective (La)Horde, which comprises the artists Marine Brutti, Jonathan Debrouwer, and Arthur Harel.—
Laura Regensdorf,
Vogue,
25 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
In negotiating parlance, that’s the most a buyer is willing to pay, and Paramount hasn’t shared its answer.—
Brian Stelter,
CNN Money,
17 Feb. 2026
-
Now the trick will be to get older females to show up as well (in movie parlance.—
Pamela McClintock,
HollywoodReporter,
15 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Idiolect.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/idiolect. Accessed 3 Mar. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
