Word.ws English Dictionary

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

Sapir-Whorf hypothesis proper noun: the hypothesis that the structure of a language affects the worldview or cognition of its speakers.

Proper noun

the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

  1. The hypothesis that the structure of a language affects the worldview or cognition of its speakers.
    • Newspeak sets the scene of linguistic determinism, where language is hypothesised to influence or control a people group’s thought processes. In popular terms, this has been referred to as part of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, or an aspect of linguistic relativity, where individuals perceive the...2020 August 8, Zui, “Controlled Languages — Newspeak”, in The Language Closet

Origin of Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

Named after two researchers, Edward Sapir and his student Benjamin Lee Whorf, who observed that linguistic differences have consequences in human cognition and behavior.

Questions about Sapir-Whorf hypothesis

What does Sapir-Whorf hypothesis mean?
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis means the hypothesis that the structure of a language affects the worldview or cognition of its speakers.
What part of speech is Sapir-Whorf hypothesis?
Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is a proper noun.

Words near Sapir-Whorf hypothesis in the dictionary

  1. sapios
  2. sapiosexual
  3. sapiosexuality
  4. sapiosexuals
  5. Sapir
  6. Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
  7. Sapirian
  8. Sapirman
  9. Sapirmans
  10. Sapirs
  11. sapiutan

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (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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