dead languages
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Some dead languages, such as Latin, ancient Greek, and Sanskrit, may nevertheless be studied by large numbers of people because of their literary or historical importance.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
All three were dead languages, but the Greek alphabet was still in use.
From New York Times • Oct. 19, 2021
If she’s sending furtive messages, they’re so subtle, they might as well be Morse code wrapped in semaphore filtered through hieroglyphics and the dead languages of our forefathers eight generations back.
From Washington Post • Dec. 5, 2019
When dealing with living or even dead languages, the encoding process—the assignment of code points to characters—consisted of observation and research: How does the punctuation behave?
From The New Yorker • Jul. 22, 2019
I’d be learning dead languages right now and studying the trombone and fourth-century Greek history.
From Forbes • Sep. 25, 2014
It's sort of the Mount Everest of dead languages.
From "An Abundance of Katherines" by John Green
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
