• enPR: lăngʹgwĭj, IPA: /ˈlæŋɡwɪd͡ʒ/
  • (America, Canada) IPA: [ˈleɪŋɡwɪd͡ʒ]

From Middle English langage, language, from Old French language, from Vulgar Latin *linguāticum, from Latin lingua, from itc-ola dingua, from Proto-Indo-European *dn̥ǵʰwéh₂s.

language

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 language and the German language are related.

   Deaf and mute people communicate using languages like ASL.

   • 1867, Report on the Systems of Deaf-Mute Instruction pursued in Europe, quoted in 1983 in History of the College for the Deaf, 1857-1907 ISBN 0913580856, page 240:

     Hence the natural language of the mute is, in schools of this class, suppressed as soon and as far as possible, and its existence as a language, capable of being made the reliable and precise vehicle for the widest range of thought, is ignored.

2. (uncountable) The ability to communicate using words.

   the gift of language

3. (uncountable) A sublanguage: the slang of a particular community or jargon of a particular specialist field.
   • 1892, Walter Besant, “Prologue: Who is Edmund Gray?”, in The Ivory Gate […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC ↗:

     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.

   • 1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, →OCLC ↗, section II, page 24 ↗:

     And ‘blubbing’ . . . Blubbing went out with ‘decent’ and ‘ripping’. Mind you, not a bad new language to start up. 1920s schoolboy slang could be due for a revival.

   legal language;   the language of chemistry

4. (countable, uncountable, figurative) 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

5. (countable, uncountable) A body of sounds, signs and/or signals by which animals communicate, and by which plants are sometimes also thought to communicate.
   • 1983, The Listener, volume 110, page 14:

     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.

   • 2009, Animals in Translation, page 274:

     Prairie dogs use their language to refer to real dangers in the real world, so it definitely has meaning.

6. (computing, countable) A computer language; a machine language.
7. (uncountable) Manner of expression.
   • 1782, William Cowper, Hope

     Their language simple, as their manners meek, […]

8. (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.

9. (uncountable) Profanity.

• (form of communication) see Thesaurus:language
• (vocabulary of a particular field) see Thesaurus:jargon
• (computer language) computer language, programming language, machine language
• (particular words used) see Thesaurus:wording

see language/translations

language (languages, present participle languaging; simple past and past participle languaged)

1. (rare, now, nonstandard or technical) To communicate by language; to express in language.
   • 1655, Thomas Fuller, The Church-history of Britain; […], London: […] Iohn Williams […], →OCLC ↗:

     Others were languaged in such doubtful expressions that they have a double sense.

1. An admonishment said in response to vulgar language.

   You're a pile of shit!
   Hey! Language!

Alteration of languet.

language (plural languages)

1. A languet, a flat plate in or below the flue pipe of an organ.