# language

> English word · Noun · IPA /ˈlæŋɡwɪd͡ʒ/ · frequency rank #831

## Definitions
1. 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.
2. The ability to communicate using words.
3. A sublanguage: the slang of a particular community or jargon of a particular specialist field.
4. The specific wording or style of a text, such as a law or a contract.
5. The expression of thought (the communication of meaning) in a specified way; that which communicates something, as language does.
6. A body of sounds, signs or signals by which animals communicate, and by which plants are sometimes also thought to communicate.
7. A computer language; a machine language.
8. A manner of expression.
9. The particular words used in a speech or a passage of text.
10. Profanity.

## Etymology
From Middle English langage, language, from Old French language, from Vulgar Latin *linguāticum, from Latin lingua (“tongue, speech, language”), from Old Latin dingua (“tongue”), from Proto-Indo-European *dn̥ǵʰwéh₂s (“tongue, speech, language”). Doublet of langaj. Displaced native Old English ġeþēode.

## Easily confused with
- **languages** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/language-vs-languages)

## Common misspellings (11)
`alnguage`, `lagnuage`, `langauge`, `langguage`, `languaeg`, `languagge`, `langugae`, `lannguage`, `lanugage`, `llanguage`, `lnaguage`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/language