Meaning of vernacular | Babel Free

Definitions

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. A style of architecture involving local building materials and styles; not imported.

Equivalents

Examples

“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.”

CEFR level