English dictionary
vernacular
nounPronunciation
/vəˈnækjələ/
/vɚˈnækjəlɚ/
Audio pronunciation
Parts of speech
Definitions
noun
- The language of a people or a national language.
- Everyday speech or dialect, including colloquialisms, as opposed to standard, literary, liturgical, or scientific idiom.
- Language unique to a particular group of people; jargon, argot.
- A language lacking standardization or a written form.
- Indigenous spoken language, as distinct from a literary or liturgical language such as Ecclesiastical Latin.
adjective
- Of or pertaining to everyday language, as opposed to standard, literary, liturgical, or scientific idiom.
- Belonging to the country of one's birth; one's own by birth or nature; native; indigenous.
- Of or related to local building materials and styles; not imported.
- Connected to a collective memory; not imported.
Example sentences
A vernacular of the United States is English.
Street vernacular can be quite different from what is heard elsewhere.
For those of a certain age, hiphop vernacular might just as well be a foreign language.
Vatican II allowed the celebration of the mass in the vernacular.
a vernacular disease