Standard English

American  

[stan-derd ing-glish, -lish] / ˈstæn dərd ˈɪŋ glɪʃ, -lɪʃ /

noun

1. the English language in its most widely accepted form, adhering to fixed academic norms of spelling, grammar, and usage in written and spoken contexts, and neutralizing nonstandard dialectal variation.

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Etymology

Origin of Standard English

First recorded in 1870–75

Example Sentences

His smirking and somewhat subversive accommodation to this Pharisaism is to emphasize the ways in which Black English is more complex than Standard English.

From The New Yorker • May 8, 2017

Remember, for many Americans, Standard English is only used in formal settings—business and school, but not home.

From Slate • Oct. 1, 2014

Grammarians push Standard English at the expense of other forms, he asserts.

From BBC • May 13, 2013

Standard English was all very well for Anglophone societies, but out there in the wider world, a non-native "decaffeinated English", declared Nerriere, was becoming the new global phenomenon.

From The Guardian • Mar. 29, 2010

Single plays, such as Julius Caesar, Merchant of Venice, Macbeth, As You Like It, are edited for class use in Standard English Classics, Lake Classics, and various other school series.

From Outlines of English and American Literature : an Introduction to the Chief Writers of England and America, to the Books They Wrote, and to the Times in Which They Lived by Long, William Joseph