body language Definition

body language
noun

1. psychol.
The communication of information by means of conscious or unconscious gestures, attitudes, facial expressions, etc, rather than by words.

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language
noun

1. Any formalized system of communication, especially one that uses sounds or written symbols which the majority of a particular community will readily understand.
2. The speech and writing of a particular nation or social group.
3. The faculty of speech.
4. A specified style of speech or verbal expression.

Example: elegant language
Thesaurus: speech, vocabulary, wording, parlance, idiom, terminology.
5. Any other way of communicating or expressing meaning.

Example: sign language
6. Professional or specialized vocabulary.

Example: legal language
Thesaurus: jargon, argot, cant, idiom.
7. A system of signs and symbols used to write computer programs. See also low-level language, high-level language.

Idiom: bad language

Words that some people might consider rude or offensive.

Derivative: body language

See separate entry.

Idiom: dead language

A language, eg Sanskrit, Latin or classical Greek, that is no longer passed on from one generation to another as a mother tongue and which has therefore become fossilized.

Idiom: first language (native language)

The language that someone learns as a child, usually from a parent or parents.

The language that someone in a multilingual community chooses to use in preference to other language options. See also mother tongue.

Idiom: second language (third etc language)

Language that is learned subsequent to the mother tongue.
Example: Polish was his first language, French was his second language and English his third

Idiom: speak the same language

To think in similar ways or share the same kind of tastes.

Etymology: 13c: from French langage.