What does "language" mean?
Language: The expression of ideas by writing, or any other instrumentality.
Additional senses
- 2.The forms of speech, or the methods of expressing ideas, peculiar to a particular nation.
- 3.The characteristic mode of arranging words, peculiar to an individual speaker or writer; manner of expression; style. Others for language all their care express. Pope.
- 4.The inarticulate sounds by which animals inferior to man express their feelings or their wants.
- 5.The suggestion, by objects, actions, or conditions, of ideas associated therewith; as, the language of flowers. There was . . . language in their very gesture. Shak.
- 6.The vocabulary and phraseology belonging to an art or department of knowledge; as, medical language; the language of chemistry or theology.
- 7.A race, as distinguished by its speech. [R.] All the people, the nations, and the languages, fell down and worshiped the golden image. Dan. iii.
- 8.Language master, a teacher of languages.[Obs.] -- Language, Speech, Tongue, Idiom, Dialect. Language is generic, denoting, in its most extended use, any mode of conveying ideas; speech is the language of articulate sounds; tongue is the Anglo- Saxon tern for language, esp. for spoken language; as, the English tongue. Idiom denotes the forms of construction peculiar to a particular language; dialects are varieties if expression which spring up in different parts of a country among people speaking substantially the same language.
- 9.To communicate by language; to express in language. Others were languaged in such doubtful expressions that they have a double sense. Fuller.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00