Definition of "dialect" []

• A regional or social variety of a language distinguished by pronunciation, grammar, or vocabulary, especially a variety of speech differing from the standard literary language or speech pattern of the culture in which it exists: Cockney is a dialect of English. (noun)
• A variety of language that with other varieties constitutes a single language of which no single variety is standard: the dialects of Ancient Greek. (noun)
• The language peculiar to the members of a group, especially in an occupation; jargon: the dialect of science. (noun)
• The manner or style of expressing oneself in language or the arts. (noun)
• A language considered as part of a larger family of languages or a linguistic branch. Not in scientific use: Spanish and French are Romance dialects. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The second part of my reason for not writing these poems in dialect is the weightier."
• "OF what shall be said herein of dialect, let it be understood the term dialect referred to is of that general breadth of meaning given it to-day, namely, any speech or vernacular outside of the prescribed form of good English in its present state."
• "Assyrian tongue differed only in dialect from the Hebrew, but in the"