speech community

American  

noun

Linguistics.

1. the aggregate of all the people who use a given language or dialect.

2. a group of people geographically distributed so that there is no break in intelligibility from place to place.

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speech community British  

noun

1. a community consisting of all the speakers of a particular language or dialect

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Etymology

Origin of speech community

First recorded in 1930–35

Example Sentences

At UCLA, she saw hip-hop as a speech community and a way for youth—particularly youth of color—to express themselves through music, art, dance and fashion.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 31, 2025

“We create a speech community among our peers, and not across generations. So that generation that felt the slur will still feel it.”

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 21, 2022

“And yet it is the lexicon, it is the vocabulary that is the most imitated and celebrated — but not with the African American speech community being given credit for it.”

From New York Times • Jul. 21, 2022

The eyes of the free speech community are upon Texas this month.

From Slate • Mar. 10, 2021

Linguists talk about the phenomenon of “accommodation”— which is the way in which we seek to adapt our own language to fit into a speech community.

From "Words Like Loaded Pistols" by Sam Leith