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private language

British

noun

philosophy a language that is not merely secret or accidentally limited to one user, but that cannot in principle be communicated to another

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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.

These are worthy investments in children’s education, especially those who live in school districts that haven’t been able to launch dual-language programs, and those whose families can’t afford private language instruction.

From Seattle Times • Aug. 30, 2022

It’s such a small, intimate, unmistakable gesture, the sort of signal that couples develop as part of their private language.

From New York Times • Apr. 8, 2020

With a nod to “Hamlet,” a mute boy and his parents in a small Wisconsin town develop a private language with their special breed of remarkable dogs.

From Washington Post • Nov. 25, 2019

Better to have lived sadly over pizza and bad movies and shared it meaningfully than to have never had a private language with someone at all.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 21, 2019

Espanol: the language that seemed to me a private language.

From "Hunger of Memory" by Richard Rodriguez

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023