01 n. Any means of conveying or communicating ideas;
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1.
Any means of conveying or communicating ideas;
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2.
The expression of ideas by writing, or any other instrumentality.
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3.
The forms of speech, or the methods of expressing ideas, peculiar to a particular nation.
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4.
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.
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5.
The inarticulate sounds by which animals inferior to man express their feelings or their wants.
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6.
The suggestion, by objects, actions, or conditions, of ideas associated therewith; as, the language of flowers.“There was . . . language in their very gesture.” — Shak.
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7.
The vocabulary and phraseology belonging to an art or department of knowledge; as, medical language; the language of chemistry or theology.
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8.
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. 7.
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9.
Any system of symbols created for the purpose of communicating ideas, emotions, commands, etc., between sentient agents.
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10.
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.(computers) Also: computer lanugage, programming language
Phrases & compounds
Language master —
a teacher of languages.
Syn.
Speech; tongue; idiom; dialect; phraseology; diction; discourse; conversation; talk.
-- 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 term for language, esp. for spoken language; as, the English tongue. Idiom denotes the forms of construction peculiar to a particular language; dialects are varieties of expression which spring up in different parts of a country among people speaking substantially the same language.