dialect
A lect (often a or language) as part of a group or family of languages, especially if they are viewed as a single language, or if contrasted with a standardized idiom that is considered the 'true' form of the language (for example, Bavarian as contrasted with Standard German).
Other meanings
A variety of a language that is characteristic of a particular area, community or social group, differing from other varieties of the same language in relatively minor ways as regards grammar, phonology, and lexicon.
A variant of a non-standardized programming language.
“Home computers in the 1980s had many incompatible dialects of BASIC.”
Synonyms
- accent
Related words
- dialecticism
- dialectometrics
- grapholect
- interdialect
- intradialect
- microdialect
- regionalect
- dialectal
- dialectic
- dialectical
- dialecting
- dialect island
Example sentences
Word history
From Ancient Greek "διάλεκτος".
Where this comes from
This definition is adapted from “dialect” on Wiktionary, by its contributors; example sentences are from Tatoeba, credited to their authors above; related-word lists use Open English WordNet (CC BY 4.0, based on Princeton WordNet), published under CC BY-SA 4.0. This page is published under the same licence.