Word.ws English Dictionary

basilects

basilects is the plural of basilect.

Meaning of basilect

Noun

basilect (plural basilects)

  1. A variety of a language that differs substantially from the standard form, and is only considered suitable for very informal contexts by speakers.
    • The highest level of good English has been called the acrolect; the lowest level of poor speech, the basilect; both are contrasted with the matrilect, the general native language.1977, Joseph Twadell Shipley, In praise of English: the growth & use of language, page 78

Questions about basilects

What is basilects the plural of?
Basilects is the plural of basilect.

Words near basilects in the dictionary

  1. basilectalize
  2. basilectalized
  3. basilectalizes
  4. basilectalizing
  5. basilectally
  6. basilects
  7. basiled
  8. basilei
  9. basileiolatry
  10. basileis
  11. basilemma

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: basilects (page history and authors); basilect (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “basilects.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/basilects. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.