idiolect

Definition of idiolectnext

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
Noun
  • Owner and chef Stefania Marchesini, who fished professionally herself for 11 years, pays a premium to local fishermen, especially for soft-shell crabs known in the local dialect as moeche.
    ABC News, ABC News, 2 Sep. 2026
  • What used to be two entirely separate compliance projects is starting to look like two dialects of the same emerging language.
    Abdelahhad Barbour, Forbes.com, 1 Sep. 2026
Noun
  • The multigenerational family epic is one of my favorite kinds of novels, and Min Jin Lee is a master of that idiom.
    Emily Temple, Literary Hub, 8 Sep. 2026
  • In that context, all three filmmakers agreed that, while English films are on the rise, the idiom is just another card on their table—and Swiss directors are eager to play their hands.
    Rafa Sales Ross, Variety, 6 Sep. 2026
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
Noun
  • Young artists like the members of the Chilean boy band Q_ARE are fusing these elements with Latin music styles, Spanish and English lyrics and Chilean slang to pioneer a uniquely Latino pop subgenre.
    Brittney Melton, NPR, 10 Aug. 2026
  • The latest slang to capture the Gen Z zeitgeist is a way to say poser, try-hard or fraud.
    Rachel Hale, USA Today, 10 Aug. 2026
Noun
  • Jamaica’s official language and civilizational ideal was the Queen’s English, but the island’s lingua franca was the marvelous variant of that tongue called patois.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 5 Aug. 2026
  • 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
Noun
  • Coming in at around ten thousand words and littered with political science jargon, the study from Gilens and Page was an unfortunate example of academic overwriting.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 14 Aug. 2026
  • While the granting or denial of a stay might sound like legal jargon, there are real-world implications at stake.
    Michael McCann, Sportico.com, 11 Aug. 2026
Noun
  • Kuechly needs to explain some football vernacular a little more.
    Andrew Marchand, New York Times, 11 Sep. 2026
  • Over Taiwanese breakfast, Claira Janover, a lively 28-year-old working for the AI fashion start-up Phia, is explaining the latest vernacular from Wasia.
    E. Alex Jung, Vulture, 8 Sep. 2026
Noun
  • Augusto, Marrero, Hernández and countless others have little choice but to figure things out which, in Cuban parlance, means overcoming whatever obstacle is placed in their way.
    Juan Carlos López, CNN Money, 5 Sep. 2026
  • In response, the town shifted its marketing to late-night booze-ups and wedding parties (known, in British parlance, as stag dos and hen dos), and subsequently grew a reputation as a sandcastle Sodom.
    George Francis Lee, New Yorker, 12 Aug. 2026

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Cite this Entry

“Idiolect.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/idiolect. Accessed 12 Sep. 2026.

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