noun
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.
The English and German languages are both members of the West Germanic language family.
Deaf and mute people communicate using sign language.
The ability to communicate using words.
the gift of language
It is wholly out of the power of language to convey any idea of the blissful enjoyment of obtaining water, after an almost total want of it, during eight and forty hours, in the scorching regions of an Arabian desert, in the month of July.
A sublanguage: the slang of a particular community or jargon of a particular specialist field.
legal language; the language of chemistry
Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language, he expressed the important words by an initial, a medial, or a final consonant, and made scratches for all the words between; his clerks, however, understood him very well.
The specific wording or style of a text, such as a law or a contract.
Technological advances are notorious for exposing the open-endedness of the language in our laws, even when we thought our definitions were airtight. Lawmakers can’t anticipate everything. Indeed, you could make the case that the whole area of patent law just is the problem of deciding whether some new technology should fall within the range of the language of the patent.
A Superior Court judge Tuesday let stand an arbitrator’s ruling that the city was allowed to pass onto its firefighters increased pension and retirement benefit costs due to changes in the state pension system. The city firefighters' union had gone to court seeking to overturn the arbitrator’s 2015 decision, claiming he’d misinterpreted the language in the contract. In his 17-page decision, Superior Court Justice Joseph Montalbano noted that by law the union had to do more than just have a good argument.
The expression of thought (the communication of meaning) in a specified way; that which communicates something, as language does.
body language; the language of the eyes
A tale about themselves [is] told by people with help from the universal languages of their eyes, their hands, and even their shirting feet.
verb
To communicate by language; to express in language.
Others were languaged in such doubtful expressions that they have a double sense.
intj
An admonishment said in response to someone using vulgar language during a conversation.
Nancy: So... me and Barbara are gonna study at her house tonight. That's cool, right? / Karen: No, not cool. / Nancy: What? Why not? / Karen: Why do you think? Am I speaking Chinese in this house? Until we know Will is okay, no one leaves. / Nancy: This is such bullshit. / Ted: Language. / Nancy: So we're under house arrest? Just because Mike's friend got lost on the way home from... / Mike: Wait, this is Will's fault? / Karen: Nancy, take that back. / Nancy: No! / Mike: You're just pissed off 'cause you wanna hang out with Steve. / Ted: Steve? / Karen: Who's Steve? / Mike: Her new boyfriend. / Nancy: You are such a douchebag, Mike! / Ted: Language!