vernacular
noun
- 1
The language of a people or a national language.
“A vernacular of the United States is English.”
- 2
Everyday speech or dialect, including colloquialisms, as opposed to standard, literary, liturgical, or scientific idiom.
“Street vernacular can be quite different from what is heard elsewhere.”
- 3
Language unique to a particular group of people; jargon, argot.
“For those of a certain age, hiphop vernacular might just as well be a foreign language.”
- 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.
“Vatican II allowed the celebration of the mass in the vernacular.”
adjective
- 1
Of or pertaining to everyday language, as opposed to standard, literary, liturgical, or scientific idiom.
- 2
Belonging to the country of one's birth; one's own by birth or nature; native; indigenous.
“a vernacular disease”
- 3
Of or related to local building materials and styles; not imported.
- 4
Connected to a collective memory; not imported.
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