Word.ws English Dictionary

conlang

Syllables: con·lang/ˈkɒnlæŋ/US/ˈkɑnˌlæŋ/

conlang is the alternative form of constructed language.

Meaning of constructed language

Noun

constructed language (plural constructed languages)

  1. Any language—whether a human language, a programming language, or markup language—that is not a natural language.
    • So if the constructed language is machine code, that is very fine, because the syntax (the grammar) is very simple and the meaning of each instruction can be verified [...]1972, Maurice Marois, Man and Computer: Proceedings, S. Karger, page 120
  2. A human language that has been consciously devised by an individual or a group, as opposed to having naturally evolved as part of a culture like a natural language.
    • The first practical constructed language was the south-west German Pastor Schleyer's Volapük from 1879; its complicated grammar and irregular vocabulary made learning difficult, however. The most successful has been Esperanto, devised by the Warsaw ophthalmologist Ludwig Zamenhof in 1887, that...2004, Steven Roger Fischer, A History of Language
  3. (archaic) Any language used by people, as opposed to less civilized means of communication, such as the socialization between animals.
    • It has been said that— when I made the observation, that if they were not married they ought to be—I endeavoured to stab their reputation. Now, I'll prove that I endeavoured to do nothing of the sort. [...] I'll prove it by logic, and I defy all the mathematicians in the habitable globe to known it...1844, Henry Cockton, Sylvester Sound, the somnambulist, pages 203–204

Verb

conlang (third-person singular simple present conlangs, present participle conlanging, simple past and past participle conlanged)

  1. (ambitransitive) To create or work on a conlang (constructed language).
    • I've been conlanging since I was nine years old.
    • Brithenig was conlanged with the purpose of looking how Welsh might have developed if it were a Romance language.

Synonyms of conlang

Forms of conlang

Noun
pluralconlangs
Verb
third-person singular presentconlangs
present participleconlanging
past participleconlanged
pastconlanged

Origin of conlang

The noun is a syllabic abbreviation of constructed language, while the verb is derived from the noun. By surface analysis, con- (“constructed”) + lang or -lang (“language”).

Words formed from conlang

Questions about conlang

What does conlang mean?
Conlang means to create or work on a conlang (constructed language).
What is conlang the alternative form of?
Conlang is the alternative form of constructed language.
What part of speech is conlang?
Conlang is a verb.
How do you pronounce conlang?
Conlang is pronounced /ˈkɒnlæŋ/ (UK).
What is the past tense of conlang?
The past tense of conlang is conlanged.

Words near conlang in the dictionary

  1. conks out
  2. conky
  3. Conky Joe
  4. Conky Joes
  5. Conlan
  6. conlang
  7. conlanged
  8. conlanger
  9. conlangers
  10. conlanging
  11. conlangs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: conlang (page history and authors); constructed language (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-I learned some phrases-conlang.wav.

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