as in dialect
the special terms or expressions of a particular group or field
the medical patois that the hospital staffers used among themselves was incomprehensible to me
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Examples of patois in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
Peddlers greet customers in Belize’s official language, English, or Kriol, the patois formed centuries ago when Britons brought enslaved Africans to what is now Belize.
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Simon Romero Alejandro Cegarra, New York Times, 28 Feb. 2024
These individuals’ diverse languages melded together, and a distinctive patois and culture started to emerge.
—Joshua Kagavi, Smithsonian Magazine, 29 Feb. 2024
Gillis, playing an Ohio Catholic dad who drags his family to church while vacationing in Jamaica, catches the spirit (and a pretty decent patois) and the whole sketch ends with a literal crossing of the aisle as the white tourist family jams alongside the Jamaican congregation.
—Rebecca Sun, The Hollywood Reporter, 25 Feb. 2024
He’s got the Jamaican patois down, at times so well that the movie could have used subtitles.
—Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post, 12 Feb. 2024
See all Example Sentences for patois 
Simon Romero Alejandro Cegarra, New York Times, 28 Feb. 2024
These individuals’ diverse languages melded together, and a distinctive patois and culture started to emerge.
—Joshua Kagavi, Smithsonian Magazine, 29 Feb. 2024
Gillis, playing an Ohio Catholic dad who drags his family to church while vacationing in Jamaica, catches the spirit (and a pretty decent patois) and the whole sketch ends with a literal crossing of the aisle as the white tourist family jams alongside the Jamaican congregation.
—Rebecca Sun, The Hollywood Reporter, 25 Feb. 2024
He’s got the Jamaican patois down, at times so well that the movie could have used subtitles.
—Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post, 12 Feb. 2024
See all Example Sentences for patois
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'patois.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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“Patois.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/patois. Accessed 9 Sep. 2024.
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