dialect

American  

[dahy-uh-lekt] / ˈdaɪ əˌlɛkt /

noun

1. Linguistics. a variety of a language that is distinguished from other varieties of the same language by features of phonology, grammar, and vocabulary, and by its use by a group of speakers who are set off from others geographically or socially.

2. a provincial, rural, or socially distinct variety of a language that differs from the standard language, especially when considered as substandard.

   Synonyms:

   patois, idiom

3. a special variety of a language.

   The literary dialect is usually taken as the standard language.

4. a language considered as one of a group that have a common ancestor.

   Persian, Latin, and English are Indo-European dialects.

5. jargon or cant.

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dialect British  

/ ˈdaɪəˌlɛkt /

noun

1. 1. a form of a language spoken in a particular geographical area or by members of a particular social class or occupational group, distinguished by its vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation

   2. a form of a language that is considered inferior

      the farmer spoke dialect and was despised by the merchants

   3. ( as modifier )

      a dialect word

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Related Words

See language.

Other Word Forms

• dialectal adjective
• subdialect noun

Etymology

Origin of dialect

First recorded in 1545–55; from Latin dialectus, from Greek diálektos “discourse, language, dialect,” equivalent to dialég(esthai) “to converse” ( dia- “through, between” + légein “to speak”) + -tos verbal adjective suffix; dia-

Example Sentences

Most young readers today would find “The Yearling” too long, too leisurely and too clogged with dialect, but a few might still feel as I did when I read it more than 60 years ago.

From The Wall Street Journal

She said her captors were all masked and spoke in the Syrian Arabic dialect.

From BBC

The world's biggest US AI chatbots do not work in all of India's 22 official languages - let alone the hundreds of dialects that exist within them.

From BBC

He was a keen student of dialect; doing movies in the South, he meandered down backroads, learning just the right way to frame a question in rural Mississippi or deliver a compliment in west Texas.

From Los Angeles Times

The first two books have sold more than 18 million copies in 115 languages and dialects around the world.

From BBC

Related Words

• accent
• idiom
• jargon
• language
• lingo
• patois
• pronunciation
• slang
• terminology
• tongue
• vernacular
• vocabulary