dialect

CEFRC1

/ˈdaɪ.əˌlɛkt/

noun

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    noun

    A form of a language used by people in a particular area.

  2. 02

    noun

    Extra detail

    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.

Examples

  • This is a poem written in Scottish dialect.

  • Tom always makes fun of John because of his dialect.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
2

Deep Dive

noun

Extra meanings

  1. Language that is perceived as substandard or wrong.

  2. A lect (often a regional or minority 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).

  3. A variant of a non-standardized programming language.

More examples

In context

  • Home computers in the 1980s had many incompatible dialects of BASIC.

  • Comparative wordlists of two dialects of Yoruba with Igala.

  • Well, those children don't speak dialect, not in this school. Maybe in the public schools, but not here.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Deep check

Linguists traveled to the remote village to record a unique blank that had been preserved due to isolation.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

noun

From Middle French dialecte, from Latin dialectos, dialectus, from Ancient Greek διάλεκτος (diálektos, “conversation, the language of a country or a place or a nation, the local idiom which derives from a dominant language”), from διαλέγομαι (dialégomai, “to participate in a dialogue”), from διά (diá, “inter, through”) + λέγω (légō, “to speak”); by surface analysis, dia- + -lect.