language

Noun (1)

language (countable and uncountable, plural languages)

1. (countable) A body of words, and set of methods of combining them (called a grammar), understood by a community and used as a form of communication.
   • The English and German languages are both members of the West Germanic language family.
   • Deaf and mute people communicate using sign language.
2. (uncountable) The ability to communicate using words.
   • the gift of language
   • It is wholly out of the power of language to convey any idea of the blissful enjoyment of obtaining water, after an almost total want of it, during eight and forty hours, in the scorching regions of an Arabian desert, in the month of July.1805 December, Julius Griffiths, “A Journey across the Desert”, in The Monthly Mirror, page 362
3. (uncountable) A sublanguage: the slang of a particular community or jargon of a particular specialist field.
   • legal language; the language of chemistry
   • Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language, he expressed the important words by an initial, a medial, or a final consonant, and made scratches for all the words between; his clerks, however, understood him very well.1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC

   Synonyms:

   jargon

4. (uncountable) The specific wording or style of a text, such as a law or a contract.
   • Technological advances are notorious for exposing the open-endedness of the language in our laws, even when we thought our definitions were airtight. Lawmakers can’t anticipate everything. Indeed, you could make the case that the whole area of patent law just is the problem of deciding whether some...2012 April 22, Peter Ludlow, “The Living Word”, in The New York Times, retrieved 23 Jan 2026
   • A Superior Court judge Tuesday let stand an arbitrator’s ruling that the city was allowed to pass onto its firefighters increased pension and retirement benefit costs due to changes in the state pension system. The city firefighters' union had gone to court seeking to overturn the arbitrator’s 2015...2017 September 17, John Hill, “Judge backs city on firefighters' retirement ruling”, in The Providence Journal, retrieved 23 Jan 2026
5. (figuratively) The expression of thought (the communication of meaning) in a specified way; that which communicates something, as language does.
   • body language; the language of the eyes
   • A tale about themselves [is] told by people with help from the universal languages of their eyes, their hands, and even their shirting feet.2001, Eugene C. Kennedy, Sara C. Charles, On Becoming a Counselor, →ISBN
6. A body of sounds, signs or signals by which animals communicate, and by which plants are sometimes also thought to communicate.
   • A more likely hypothesis was that the attacked leaves were transmitting some airborne chemical signal to sound the alarm, rather like insects sending out warnings […] But this is the first time that a plant-to-plant language has been detected.1983, The Listener, volume 110, page 14
   • Prairie dogs use their language to refer to real dangers in the real world, so it definitely has meaning.2009, Animals in Translation, page 274
7. (countable) A computer language; a machine language.
   • In fact pointers are called references in these languages to distinguish them from pointers in languages like C and C++.2015, Kent D. Lee, Foundations of Programming Languages, →ISBN, page 94
8. (uncountable) A manner of expression.
   • Their language simple, as their manners meek, […]1782, William Cowper, Hope
9. (uncountable) The particular words used in a speech or a passage of text.
   • The language used in the law does not permit any other interpretation.
   • The language he used to talk to me was obscene.

   Synonyms:

   wording

10. (euphemistic, uncountable) Profanity.
    • "Where the hell is Horace?" ¶ "There he is. He's coming. You shouldn't use language."1978, James Carroll, Mortal Friends, →ISBN, page 500

Verb

language (third-person singular simple present languages, present participle languaging, simple past and past participle languaged)

1. (nonstandard, rare) To communicate by language; to express in language.
   • Others were languaged in such doubtful expressions that they have a double sense.1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=I to XI)

Interjection

1. An admonishment said in response to someone using vulgar language during a conversation.
   • Nancy: So... me and Barbara are gonna study at her house tonight. That's cool, right? / Karen: No, not cool. / Nancy: What? Why not? / Karen: Why do you think? Am I speaking Chinese in this house? Until we know Will is okay, no one leaves. / Nancy: This is such bullshit. / Ted: Language. / Nancy...2016, “The Vanishing of Will Byers”, in Stranger Things, season 1, episode 1, spoken by Nancy Wheeler, Karen Wheeler, Ted Wheeler, and Mike Wheeler (Natalia Dyer, Cara Buono, Joe Chrest, and Finn...

Noun (2)

language (plural languages)

1. A languet, a flat plate in or below the flue pipe of an organ.
   • A flue-pipe is one in which the air passes through the throat, or flue, which is the narrow, longitudinal aperture between the lower lip and the tongue, or language. […] The language is adjusted by slightly elevating or depressing it, […]1896, William Horatio Clarke, The Organist's Retrospect, page 79