language

noun
lan·guage
/ˈlæŋ.ɡwɪd͡ʒ/

A body of words, and set of methods of combining them (called a grammar), understood by a community and used as a form of communication.

Example

“The English and German languages are both members of the West Germanic language family.”

Other meanings

The ability to communicate using words.
“the gift of language”
A sublanguage: the slang of a particular community or jargon of a particular specialist field.
“legal language;   the language of chemistry”

Synonyms

speech
speech communication
spoken communication
spoken language
voice communication
oral communication

Example sentences

“I'm testing whether the language detection works again.”
Tatoeba · TRANG · CC0
“A billion international auxiliary languages is never enough.”
Tatoeba · shekitten · CC0
“These languages are currently under community development.”
Tatoeba · Isomorph · CC0

Word history

From Latin "lingua" (tongue, speech, language).

Where this comes from

This definition is adapted from “language” 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.