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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Language \Lan"guage\, noun [OE. langage, F. langage, fr. L. lingua the tongue, hence speech, language; akin to E. tongue. See {Tongue}, cf. {Lingual}.]
1. Any means of conveying or communicating ideas; specifically, human speech; the expression of ideas by the voice; sounds, expressive of thought, articulated by the organs of the throat and mouth.
Note: Language consists in the oral utterance of sounds which usage has made the representatives of ideas. When two or more persons customarily annex the same sounds to the same ideas, the expression of these sounds by one person communicates his ideas to another. This is the primary sense of language, the use of which is to communicate the thoughts of one person to another through the organs of hearing. Articulate sounds are represented to the eye by letters, marks, or characters, which form words.
2. The expression of ideas by writing, or any other instrumentality.
3. The forms of speech, or the methods of expressing ideas, peculiar to a particular nation.
4. The characteristic mode of arranging words, peculiar to an individual speaker or writer; manner of expression; style.
Others for language all their care express. --Pope.
5. The inarticulate sounds by which animals inferior to man express their feelings or their wants.
6. The suggestion, by objects, actions, or conditions, of ideas associated therewith; as, the language of flowers.
There was . . . language in their very gesture. --Shak.
7. The vocabulary and phraseology belonging to an art or department of knowledge; as, medical language; the language of chemistry or theology.
8. A race, as distinguished by its speech. [R.]
All the people, the nations, and the languages, fell down and worshiped the golden image. --Dan. iii. 7.
9. Any system of symbols created for the purpose of communicating ideas, emotions, commands, etc., between sentient agents. [PJC]
10. Specifically: (computers) Any set of symbols and the rules for combining them which are used to specify to a computer the actions that it is to take; also referred to as a {computer lanugage} or {programming language}; as, JAVA is a new and flexible high-level language which has achieved popularity very rapidly. [PJC]
Note: Computer languages are classed a low-level if each instruction specifies only one operation of the computer, or high-level if each instruction may specify a complex combination of operations. {Machine language} and {assembly language} are low-level computer languages. {FORTRAN}, {COBOL} and {C} are high-level computer languages. Other computer languages, such as JAVA, allow even more complex combinations of low-level operations to be performed with a single command. Many programs, such as databases, are supplied with special languages adapted to manipulate the objects of concern for that specific program. These are also high-level languages. [PJC]
{Language master}, a teacher of languages. [Obs.]
Syn: Speech; tongue; idiom; dialect; phraseology; diction; discourse; conversation; talk.
Usage: {Language}, {Speech}, {Tongue}, {Idiom}, {Dialect}. Language is generic, denoting, in its most extended use, any mode of conveying ideas; speech is the language of articulate sounds; tongue is the Anglo-Saxon term for language, esp. for spoken language; as, the English tongue. Idiom denotes the forms of construction peculiar to a particular language; dialects are varieties of expression which spring up in different parts of a country among people speaking substantially the same language.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Language \Lan"guage\, verb (used with an object) [imp. & p. p. {Languaged}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Languaging}.] To communicate by language; to express in language.
Others were languaged in such doubtful expressions that they have a double sense. --Fuller.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
language
noun
1: a systematic means of communicating by the use of sounds or conventional symbols; "he taught foreign languages"; "the language introduced is standard throughout the text"; "the speed with which a program can be executed depends on the language in which it is written" [syn: {linguistic communication}]
2: (language) communication by word of mouth; "his speech was garbled"; "he uttered harsh language"; "he recorded the spoken language of the streets" [syn: {speech}, {speech communication}, {spoken communication}, {spoken language}, {voice communication}, {oral communication}]
3: a system of words used in a particular discipline; "legal terminology"; "the language of sociology" [syn: {terminology}, {nomenclature}]
4: the cognitive processes involved in producing and understanding linguistic communication; "he didn't have the language to express his feelings" [syn: {linguistic process}]
5: the mental faculty or power of vocal communication; "language sets homo sapiens apart from all other animals" [syn: {speech}]
6: the text of a popular song or musical-comedy number; "his compositions always started with the lyrics"; "he wrote both words and music"; "the song uses colloquial language" [syn: {lyric}, {words}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
482 Moby Thesaurus words for "language": Abnaki, Afghan, Afghani, Afrikaans, Afro-Asiatic, Ainu, Akan, Akkadian, Albanian, Aleut, Algonquian, Algonquin, Amharic, Anatolian, Anatolic, Andaman, Annamese, Anzanite, Apache, Arabic, Aramaic, Araucanian, Arawak, Arawakan, Armenian, Arulo, Aryan, Assamese, Athapaskan, Austral, Austronesian, Avestan, Aymara, Aztec, Balinese, Baluchi, Bashkir, Basque, Batak, Bellacoola, Bengali, Berber, Bhili, Bihari, Bikol, Bini, Blackfoot, Blaia Zimondal, Brahui, Brythonic, Buginese, Burmese, Burushaski, Buryat, Bushman, Byelorussian, Cantonese, Carolinian, Caspian, Castilian, Catalan, Caucasian, Chad, Cham, Cheremis, Cherokee, Chibcha, Chibchan, Chin, Chinese, Chinookan, Chuvash, Coptic, Cornish, Cuman, Czech, Dafla, Dalmatian, Danish, Dinka, Dravidian, Dutch, Dyak, Edo, Efatese, Egyptian, Elamitic, English, Eskimo, Eskimo-Aleut, Esperantido, Esperanto, Estonian, Ethiopic, Europan, Euskarian, Ewe, Faeroese, Faliscan, Fijian, Finnic, Finnish, Flemish, Fox, French, Frisian, Fula, Fulani, Gadaba, Gaelic, Galcha, Galla, Garo, Gaulish, Geez, Georgian, German, Germanic, Gold, Goldi, Gondi, Gothic, Greek, Guanche, Guarani, Gur, Gypsy, Haida, Haitian Creole, Hamito-Semitic, Hausa, Hawaiian, Hebrew, Hellenic, Hindustani, Hittite, Ho, Hokaltecan, Hokan-Siouan, Hopi, Hottentot, Iban, Ibanag, Ibo, Icelandic, Idiom Neutral, Igorot, Illyrian, Indic, Indo-Aryan, Indo-Chinese, Indo-European, Indo-Hittite, Interlingua, Irish, Iroquoian, Italian, Italic, Ivatan, Kachin, Kafiri, Kalmuck, Kamasin, Kamchadal, Kanarese, Kara-Kalpak, Karamojong, Karankawa, Karelian, Kashmiri, Kashubian, Kechumaran, Keres, Ket, Khamti, Kharia, Khasi, Khmer, Khoisan, Khondi, Khosa, Khowar, Kickapoo, Kiowa Apache, Kirghiz, Kiriwina, Kitunahan, Kodagu, Kohistani, Koiari, Kolami, Koluschan, Komi, Konkani, Korean, Korwa, Koryak, Kui, Kuki, Kuki-Chin, Kumyk, Kunama, Kurdish, Kurukh, Kutchin, Kutenai, Kwa, Ladino, Lahnda, Lampong, Lamut, Lao, Lapp, Latin, Latinesce, Latvian, Lettish, Libyan, Ligurian, Limbu, Lingualumina, Lingvo Kosmopolita, Lithuanian, Livonian, Low German, Luorawetlan, Lusatian, Luwian, Lycian, Lydian, Macedonian, Madurese, Magyar, Malagasy, Malay, Malayalam, Malayo-Polynesian, Maltese, Manchu, Mandarin, Mande, Mandingo, Mangarevan, Manobo, Manx, Maori, Marathi, Maya, Mayan, Meithei, Mende, Messapian, Micronesian, Middle English, Middle Greek, Middle High German, Middle Persian, Mishmi, Mishongnovi, Misima, Miskito, Mon, Monario, Mongolian, Mongolic, Mordvin, Mordvinian, Moro, Mru, Munda, Muong, Mura, Muran, Murmi, Muskogean, Muskogee, Na-dene, Naga, Nahuatlan, Nepali, Newari, Ngala, Ngbaka, Niasese, Nicobarese, Niuean, Nogai, Nootka, Norwegian, Nov-Esperanto, Nov-Latin, Novial, Occidental, Optez, Oraon, Oriya, Oscan, Osco-Umbrian, Osmanli, Ossetic, Ostyak, Otomanguean, Pahlavi, Palaic, Palau, Palaung, Paleo-Asiatic, Pali, Pampango, Pangasinan, Papuan, Pashto, Pasigraphy, Paya, Penutian, Permian, Persian, Phrygian, Piman, Plattdeutsch, Polabian, Polish, Polynesian, Portuguese, Prakrit, Punic, Punjabi, Quechua, Quechuan, Ritwan, Ro, Romaic, Romanal, Romance, Romanic, Romansh, Romany, Russian, Ruthenian, Sabellian, Saharan, Sakai, Salish, Samoan, Samoyed, Samoyedic, Sanskrit, Sardinian, Sasak, Scandinavian, Selung, Semitic, Serbo-Croatian, Shan, Shilha, Shluh, Shoshonean, Siamese, Sinhalese, Sino-Tibetan, Siouan, Skittagetan, Slavic, Slavonic, Slovak, Slovene, Slovenian, Sogdian, Sorbian, Soyot, Spanish, Sudanic, Sumerian, Susian, Swahili, Swedish, Syriac, Syryenian, Tagalog, Tagula, Tahitian, Takelma, Takilman, Tamashek, Tamaulipec, Tanoan, Taracahitian, Tarascan, Tavgi, Taw-Sug, Thraco-Phrygian, Tibeto-Burman, Tigre, Tipura, Tocharian, Toda, Tsimshian, Tuareg, Tulu, Tungus, Tungusic, Tupi-Guaranian, Turanian, Turkic, Turkish, Turko-Tartar, Turkoman, Ugric, Uighur, Umbrian, Ural-Altaic, Uralian, Urdu, Uto-Aztecan, Uzbek, Vietnamese, Visayan, Vote, Votyak, Wa, Welsh, White Russian, Xhosa, Yakut, Yeniseian, Yiddish, Yoruba, Yukaghir, Yukian, Yurak, Zenaga, Zulu, agglutinative, analytic, argot, cant, choice of words, communication, composition, dialect, diction, dictionary, expression, formulation, grammar, idiom, incorporative, inflectional, interaction, intercourse, isolating, jargon, language, lexicon, lingo, locution, monosyllabic, palaver, parlance, patois, phrase, phraseology, phrasing, polysynthetic, polytonic, rhetoric, slang, speech, style, synthetic, talk, terminology, tongue, usage, use of words, usus loquendi, verbiage, vernacular, vocabulary, wordage, wording, words
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:
language
1. {programming language}. 2. {natural language}. (1998-09-07)
From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:
LANGUAGE, noun The music with which we charm the serpents guarding another's treasure.
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