Vernacular

/vəˈnækjələ/ · noun

Meaning

The language of a people or a national language..

Definitions by Sense

1. The language of a people or a national language.
2. Everyday speech or dialect, including colloquialisms, as opposed to standard, literary, liturgical, or scientific idiom.
3. Language unique to a particular group of people.
4. A language lacking standardization or a written form.
5. Indigenous spoken language, as distinct from a literary or liturgical language such as Ecclesiastical Latin.
6. (architecture) A style of architecture involving local building materials and styles; not imported.
7. Of or pertaining to everyday language, as opposed to standard, literary, liturgical, or scientific idiom.
8. Belonging to the country of one's birth; one's own by birth or by nature.

Example Sentences

The principal vernacular of the United States is English.

The idea that the Bible should be translated into vernaculars was explosive in medieval society.

Near-synonyms: basilect, demotic

Street vernacular can be quite different from what is heard elsewhere.

Near-synonyms: jargon, argot, dialect, slang

For those of a certain age, hiphop vernacular might just as well be a foreign language.

Vatican II, a church council in the 1960s, allowed the celebration of the mass in the vernacular.

Near-synonyms: common, everyday, indigenous, ordinary, vulgar, colloquial, basilectal, demotic

Synonyms for vernacular

Antonyms for vernacular

Related Words

Word Forms

• vernaculars
• more vernacular
• most vernacular

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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