language

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: lan=guage
• COUNT in NET: 39 in 35 verses (in OT : 28 in 24 verses) (in NT : 11 in 11 verses)

CIDE DICTIONARY

language, n. [OE. langage, F. langage, fr. L. lingua the tongue, hence speech, language; akin to E. tongue. See Tongue, cf. Lingual.].

•  Any means of conveying or communicating ideas;  [1913 Webster]

  " Language consists in the oral utterance of sounds which usage has made the representatives of ideas. When two or more persons customarily annex the same sounds to the same ideas, the expression of these sounds by one person communicates his ideas to another. This is the primary sense of language, the use of which is to communicate the thoughts of one person to another through the organs of hearing. Articulate sounds are represented to the eye by letters, marks, or characters, which form words."  [1913 Webster]
•  The expression of ideas by writing, or any other instrumentality.  [1913 Webster]
•  The forms of speech, or the methods of expressing ideas, peculiar to a particular nation.  [1913 Webster]
•  The characteristic mode of arranging words, peculiar to an individual speaker or writer; manner of expression; style.  [1913 Webster]

  "Others for language all their care express."  [1913 Webster]
•  The inarticulate sounds by which animals inferior to man express their feelings or their wants.  [1913 Webster]
•  The suggestion, by objects, actions, or conditions, of ideas associated therewith; as, the language of flowers.  [1913 Webster]

  "There was . . . language in their very gesture."  [1913 Webster]
•  The vocabulary and phraseology belonging to an art or department of knowledge; as, medical language; the language of chemistry or theology.  [1913 Webster]
•  A race, as distinguished by its speech.  [1913 Webster]

  "All the people, the nations, and the languages, fell down and worshiped the golden image."  [1913 Webster]
•  Any system of symbols created for the purpose of communicating ideas, emotions, commands, etc., between sentient agents.  [PJC]
•  Any set of symbols and the rules for combining them which are used to specify to a computer the actions that it is to take; also referred to as a computer lanugage or programming language; as, JAVA is a new and flexible high-level language which has achieved popularity very rapidly.  [PJC]

  " Computer languages are classed a low-level if each instruction specifies only one operation of the computer, or high-level if each instruction may specify a complex combination of operations. Machine language and assembly language are low-level computer languages. FORTRAN, COBOL and C are high-level computer languages. Other computer languages, such as JAVA, allow even more complex combinations of low-level operations to be performed with a single command. Many programs, such as databases, are supplied with special languages adapted to manipulate the objects of concern for that specific program. These are also high-level languages."  [PJC]

Language master, a teacher of languages. [Obs.]

Syn. -- Speech; tongue; idiom; dialect; phraseology; diction; discourse; conversation; talk.

language, v. t. 

 To communicate by language; to express in language.  [1913 Webster]
"Others were languaged in such doubtful expressions that they have a double sense."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

language, n.
1 the method of human communication, either spoken or written, consisting of the use of words in an agreed way.
2 the language of a particular community or country etc. (speaks several languages).
3 a the faculty of speech. b a style or the faculty of expression; the use of words, etc. (his language was poetic; hasn't the language to express it). c (also bad language) coarse, crude, or abusive speech (didn't like his language).
4 a system of symbols and rules for writing computer programs or algorithms.
5 any method of expression (the language of mime; sign language).
6 a professional or specialized vocabulary.
7 literary style.

Idiom

language laboratory a room equipped with tape recorders etc. for learning a foreign language. language of flowers a set of symbolic meanings attached to different flowers. speak the same language have a similar outlook, manner of expression, etc.

Etymology

ME f. OF langage ult. f. L lingua tongue

DEVIL DICTIONARY

language

n. The music with which we charm the serpents guarding another's treasure.

THESAURUS

language

Abnaki, Afghan, Afghani, Afrikaans, Afro-Asiatic, Ainu, Akan, Akkadian, Albanian, Aleut, Algonquian, Algonquin, Amharic, Anatolian, Anatolic, Andaman, Annamese, Anzanite, Apache, Arabic, Aramaic, Araucanian, Arawak, Arawakan, Armenian, Arulo, Aryan, Assamese, Athapaskan, Austral, Austronesian, Avestan, Aymara, Aztec, Balinese, Baluchi, Bashkir, Basque, Batak, Bellacoola, Bengali, Berber, Bhili, Bihari, Bikol, Bini, Blackfoot, Blaia Zimondal, Brahui, Brythonic, Buginese, Burmese, Burushaski, Buryat, Bushman, Byelorussian, Cantonese, Carolinian, Caspian, Castilian, Catalan, Caucasian, Chad, Cham, Cheremis, Cherokee, Chibcha, Chibchan, Chin, Chinese, Chinookan, Chuvash, Coptic, Cornish, Cuman, Czech, Dafla, Dalmatian, Danish, Dinka, Dravidian, Dutch, Dyak, Edo, Efatese, Egyptian, Elamitic, English, Eskimo, Eskimo-Aleut, Esperantido, Esperanto, Estonian, Ethiopic, Europan, Euskarian, Ewe, Faeroese, Faliscan, Fijian, Finnic, Finnish, Flemish, Fox, French, Frisian, Fula, Fulani, Gadaba, Gaelic, Galcha, Galla, Garo, Gaulish, Geez, Georgian, German, Germanic, Gold, Goldi, Gondi, Gothic, Greek, Guanche, Guarani, Gur, Gypsy, Haida, Haitian Creole, Hamito-Semitic, Hausa, Hawaiian, Hebrew, Hellenic, Hindustani, Hittite, Ho, Hokaltecan, Hokan-Siouan, Hopi, Hottentot, Iban, Ibanag, Ibo, Icelandic, Idiom Neutral, Igorot, Illyrian, Indic, Indo-Aryan, Indo-Chinese, Indo-European, Indo-Hittite, Interlingua, Irish, Iroquoian, Italian, Italic, Ivatan, Kachin, Kafiri, Kalmuck, Kamasin, Kamchadal, Kanarese, Kara-Kalpak, Karamojong, Karankawa, Karelian, Kashmiri, Kashubian, Kechumaran, Keres, Ket, Khamti, Kharia, Khasi, Khmer, Khoisan, Khondi, Khosa, Khowar, Kickapoo, Kiowa Apache, Kirghiz, Kiriwina, Kitunahan, Kodagu, Kohistani, Koiari, Kolami, Koluschan, Komi, Konkani, Korean, Korwa, Koryak, Kui, Kuki, Kuki-Chin, Kumyk, Kunama, Kurdish, Kurukh, Kutchin, Kutenai, Kwa, Ladino, Lahnda, Lampong, Lamut, Lao, Lapp, Latin, Latinesce, Latvian, Lettish, Libyan, Ligurian, Limbu, Lingualumina, Lingvo Kosmopolita, Lithuanian, Livonian, Low German, Luorawetlan, Lusatian, Luwian, Lycian, Lydian, Macedonian, Madurese, Magyar, Malagasy, Malay, Malayalam, Malayo-Polynesian, Maltese, Manchu, Mandarin, Mande, Mandingo, Mangarevan, Manobo, Manx, Maori, Marathi, Maya, Mayan, Meithei, Mende, Messapian, Micronesian, Middle English, Middle Greek, Middle High German, Middle Persian, Mishmi, Mishongnovi, Misima, Miskito, Mon, Monario, Mongolian, Mongolic, Mordvin, Mordvinian, Moro, Mru, Munda, Muong, Mura, Muran, Murmi, Muskogean, Muskogee, Na-dene, Naga, Nahuatlan, Nepali, Newari, Ngala, Ngbaka, Niasese, Nicobarese, Niuean, Nogai, Nootka, Norwegian, Nov-Esperanto, Nov-Latin, Novial, Occidental, Optez, Oraon, Oriya, Oscan, Osco-Umbrian, Osmanli, Ossetic, Ostyak, Otomanguean, Pahlavi, Palaic, Palau, Palaung, Paleo-Asiatic, Pali, Pampango, Pangasinan, Papuan, Pashto, Pasigraphy, Paya, Penutian, Permian, Persian, Phrygian, Piman, Plattdeutsch, Polabian, Polish, Polynesian, Portuguese, Prakrit, Punic, Punjabi, Quechua, Quechuan, Ritwan, Ro, Romaic, Romanal, Romance, Romanic, Romansh, Romany, Russian, Ruthenian, Sabellian, Saharan, Sakai, Salish, Samoan, Samoyed, Samoyedic, Sanskrit, Sardinian, Sasak, Scandinavian, Selung, Semitic, Serbo-Croatian, Shan, Shilha, Shluh, Shoshonean, Siamese, Sinhalese, Sino-Tibetan, Siouan, Skittagetan, Slavic, Slavonic, Slovak, Slovene, Slovenian, Sogdian, Sorbian, Soyot, Spanish, Sudanic, Sumerian, Susian, Swahili, Swedish, Syriac, Syryenian, Tagalog, Tagula, Tahitian, Takelma, Takilman, Tamashek, Tamaulipec, Tanoan, Taracahitian, Tarascan, Tavgi, Taw-Sug, Thraco-Phrygian, Tibeto-Burman, Tigre, Tipura, Tocharian, Toda, Tsimshian, Tuareg, Tulu, Tungus, Tungusic, Tupi-Guaranian, Turanian, Turkic, Turkish, Turko-Tartar, Turkoman, Ugric, Uighur, Umbrian, Ural-Altaic, Uralian, Urdu, Uto-Aztecan, Uzbek, Vietnamese, Visayan, Vote, Votyak, Wa, Welsh, White Russian, Xhosa, Yakut, Yeniseian, Yiddish, Yoruba, Yukaghir, Yukian, Yurak, Zenaga, Zulu, agglutinative, analytic, argot, cant, choice of words, communication, composition, dialect, diction, dictionary, expression, formulation, grammar, idiom, incorporative, inflectional, interaction, intercourse, isolating, jargon, language, lexicon, lingo, locution, monosyllabic, palaver, parlance, patois, phrase, phraseology, phrasing, polysynthetic, polytonic, rhetoric, slang, speech, style, synthetic, talk, terminology, tongue, usage, use of words, usus loquendi, verbiage, vernacular, vocabulary, wordage, wording, words

ROGET THESAURUS

language

Language

N language, phraseology, speech, tongue, lingo, vernacular, mother tongue, vulgar tongue, native tongue, household words, King's English, Queen's English, dialect, confusion of tongues, Babel, pasigraphie, pantomime, onomatopoeia, betacism, mimmation, myatism, nunnation, pasigraphy, lexicology, philology, glossology, glottology, linguistics, chrestomathy, paleology, paleography, comparative grammar, literature, letters, polite literature, belles lettres, muses, humanities, literae humaniores, republic of letters, dead languages, classics, genius of language, scholarship, lingual, linguistic, dialectic, vernacular, current, bilingual, diglot, hexaglot, polyglot, literary, syllables govern the world.