Definition of: language

(lang′gwij) noun
1. The expression and communication of emotions or ideas between human beings by means of speech and hearing, the sounds spoken or heard being systematized and confirmed by usage among a given people over a period of time.
2. Transmission of emotions or ideas between any living creatures by any means.
3. The words forming the means of communication among members of a single nation or group at a given period; tongue: the French language.
4. The impulses, capacities, and powers which induce and make possible the creation and use of all forms of human communication by speech and hearing.
5. The vocabulary or technical expressions used in a specific business, science, etc.: the language of mathematics.
6. One's characteristic manner of expression or use of speech. [<OF langage <langue tongue <L lingua tongue, language. Akin to TONGUE.] Synonyms: barbarism, dialect, diction, expression, gibberish, idiom, patois, speech, tongue, vernacular. Language originally signified only the expression of thought by spoken words; it has now acquired the broader interpretation of the expression of thought by any means. Speech denotes the power of articulate utterance; we can speak of the language of animals, but not of their speech. A tongue is the speech or language of some one people, country, or race. A dialect is a special mode of speaking a language peculiar to some locality or class; a barbarism is a usage that is felt to be substandard. Idiom refers to the construction of phrases and sentences, and the way of forming or using words; it is the peculiar mold in which each language casts its thought. The great difficulty of translation lies in giving the thought expressed in one language in the idiom of another. A dialect may be used by the highest as well as the lowest within its range; a patois is usually illiterate, belonging to the lower classes; those who speak a patois understand the cultured form of their own language, but speak only their own form; often a patois is a kind of linguistic enclave, as the dialect of the French–Canadians in rural Quebec, or the speech of the Cajuns in Louisiana.