languages

noun

plural of language
1
as in tongues
the stock of words, pronunciation, and grammar used by a people as their basic means of communication Great Britain, the United States, Australia, and other countries where English is the dominant language

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Relevance
2
as in dialects
the special terms or expressions of a particular group or field "love" means "nothing" in the language of tennis

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3
as in dictions
the way in which something is put into words we're finding the language of the legal documents to be tough going

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of languages Looking ahead to 2027, Quijote welcomes co-development opportunities across territories and languages, with no geographical or linguistic boundaries. — Anna Marie De La Fuente, Variety, 12 Oct. 2026 The students also perform songs in multiple languages and are preparing to compete against choirs from around the world in Barcelona. — Kaicey Baylor, CBS News, 12 Oct. 2026 Visual Studio Professional 2026 is a 64-bit development environment built for working across multiple languages and platforms. — Stackcommerce Team, PC Magazine, 11 Oct. 2026 Chatter in different languages filled the air; there were more thank you’s than grazie’s. — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 10 Oct. 2026 The Duke then entered the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, where his aptitude for foreign languages was recognized with a prize. — Stephanie Bridger-Linning, Vanity Fair, 10 Oct. 2026 The expansion will also introduce new catalogs in Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Polish and more, with more than 120 languages in total. — Caitlin Huston, HollywoodReporter, 7 Oct. 2026 Barbara Kingsolver Barbara Kingsolver’s work has been translated into more than twenty languages and has earned a devoted readership. — Literary Hub, 6 Oct. 2026 Voice of America, one of six entities that fall under the purview of the United States Agency for Global Media (USAGM), is a digital, web, and mobile media outlet that broadcasts news to over 361 million people globally in 49 languages. — Joshua Hong, Fortune, 5 Oct. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for languages
  1. tongues
  2. dialects
  3. dictions
  4. vocabularies
  5. terminologies
  6. formulations
  7. idioms
Noun
  • Their long, barbed tongues can easily wind into ant and termite homes, licking up the bugs inside.
    — Lauren Penington, Denver Post, 4 Oct. 2026
  • The President of the United States (John Goodman) and his cabinet of hawkish generals, gargoyle-ish officials, and speaking-in-tongues spiritual advisors gather at the oilman’s house to discuss next steps.
    — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 29 Sep. 2026
Definition of tongues
Noun
  • Documenting many varieties is a way to not just share the language, but to illustrate how dialects of Pennsylvania Dutch differ and maybe even fill in each other’s gaps.
    — Eythana Miller, The Dial, 24 Sep. 2026
  • Italy is a unique country where every city has its own identity, architecture, traditions, flavors, dialects and even different ways of life.
    — Martino Carrera, Footwear News, 21 Sep. 2026
Definition of dialects
Noun
  • The first three were post-dictions of inflation; the latter four were predictions that had not yet been observed when they were made.
    — Ethan Siegel, Big Think, 23 Sep. 2025
Definition of dictions
Noun
  • Yet a 2023 Stanford study said that Pangram was biased against non-native English speakers, who might have more limited vocabularies, and many AI researchers contend that such detectors are unreliable.
    — Cameron Pugh, Christian Science Monitor, 12 Aug. 2026
  • Chinese law schools have accordingly placed greater weight on teaching Chinese students to argue using the vocabularies of foreign legal systems.
    — Mark Jia, Foreign Affairs, 7 Aug. 2026
Definition of vocabularies
Noun
  • That requires someone who can teach those ideas and terminologies to players who learn in different ways and at different speeds.
    — David Aldridge, New York Times, 10 Sep. 2026
Definition of terminologies
Noun
  • The formulations still require testing for toxicity, purity and sterility; PMMA’s history of biomedical use does not establish the safety of the complete ink.
    — Rupendra Brahambhatt, Interesting Engineering, 10 Oct. 2026
  • If drugstore brands follow prestige lines into oil-in-serum formulations, the two-step routine collapses into one.
    — Hanna Wickes, Miami Herald, 7 Oct. 2026
Definition of formulations
Noun
  • There are always critics in all idioms whose goal is writing about something much bigger using a review to get there.
    — Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 22 Sep. 2026
  • Cinema is, after all, a language, and Belgian filmmakers come from a country built on the need to understand language as a bridge—between its regions, its people, and its idioms.
    — Rafa Sales Ross, Variety, 11 Sep. 2026
Definition of idioms

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language
languages
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Cite this Entry

“Languages.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/languages. Accessed 14 Oct. 2026.

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