patois

Definitions

1. A regional dialect (usually one considered substandard) of a language (especially French).
   countable, uncountable
2. Any of various French or Occitan dialects spoken in France.
   countable, uncountable
3. Creole French in the Caribbean (especially in Dominica, St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, and Haiti).
   countable, uncountable
4. Jamaican Patois, a Jamaican creole language based primarily on English and African languages but also having influences from Spanish, Portuguese, and Hindi.
   Jamaica, countable, uncountable
5. Jargon or cant.
   countable, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“[The Sundanese] are regarded as relatively barbarous, and in the company of Malays or Javanese, they are themselves ashamed of their dialect, which is looked on as a sort⟳ of rude patois.”

“*The Expanse'*s patois has become⟳, like⟳ Klingon and Dothraki, the show's great unifier—the slang all devotees speak⟳.”

“In the patois of insurance, the winery will go bare into this year’s burning season, which experts predict⟳ to be especially fierce.”

CEFR level