noun
language
LANG-gwij/ˈlæŋɡwɪdʒ/
An organized system of expressions used to communicate.
The two adults use language to communicate across the table.
Etymology
Old French langage meant speech or words. In English, this developed into the shared system behind speech: a community’s words and methods of combining them to communicate.
In context
analogy words have meanings right sometimes a few of them but they have clear definitions we have verbs now in sentence structure these rules are critical to our use of language
More examples
- She speaks three languages with equal confidence.
- The instructions use plain language instead of technical terms.
- American Sign Language is a complete language with its own grammar.
Forms
language · languages
Similar words
- speech
- Speech uses spoken words, while language also includes signed systems.
- communication
- Communication is the exchange itself, not the system enabling it.
- dialect
- A dialect is a regional or social variety of language.