Definition of "language" []

• Communication of thoughts and feelings through a system of arbitrary signals, such as voice sounds, gestures, or written symbols. (noun)
• Such a system including its rules for combining its components, such as words. (noun)
• Such a system as used by a nation, people, or other distinct community; often contrasted with dialect. (noun)
• A system of signs, symbols, gestures, or rules used in communicating: the language of algebra. (noun)
• Computer Science A system of symbols and rules used for communication with or between computers. (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.

• "“Yet, the Esperanto movement believes that tourists can truly have cross-cultural experiences when they speak only a foreign, constructed language and give no attention to the local language”"
• "The Immigration Restriction Act (federal) provided that an immigrant, on demand, must demonstrate ability to pass a test in a European language (changed in 1905 to “a prescribed language” to spare Japanese susceptibilities)."
• "Of course it was not only in Latin that he wished to make pupils think of it as a "spoken language," for Mr. Darbishire tells us that "one of his special endeavours was to accustom his students to deal with Greek _as a spoken language_" [Footnote: It will be remembered that Francis Newman introduced the "new" pronunciation of Latin.] (as, for instance) "in reading Greek plays.""