Words used to describe language

an agglutinative language joins words together to make new words

linguistics relating to the languages of important literature in the past. Latin, Ancient Greek, Classical Arabic, and Sanskrit are classical languages.

cognate (adjective)

linguistics cognate words or languages have the same origin

contextual (adjective)

connected with a particular context

creole (adjective)

relating to languages that are creoles

dead (adjective)

a dead language such as Latin is no longer used by people in their ordinary lives

disyllabic (adjective)

disyllabic words have two syllables

extinct (adjective)

an extinct animal, plant, or language no longer exists

figurative (adjective)

linguistics if you use words in a figurative way, you use them not in their normal literal meaning but in a way that makes a description more interesting or impressive

figuratively (adverb)

using words not in their normal literal meaning but in a way that makes a description more interesting or impressive

idiomatic (adjective)

containing idioms or consisting of an idiom

inflected (adjective)

an inflected language has words that inflect

linguistic (adjective)

relating to languages, words, or linguistics

literal (adjective)

the literal meaning of a word is its most basic meaning

literally (adverb)

in the most basic, obvious meanings of the words that are used

metaphorical (adjective)

a metaphorical word, phrase, image etc is intended to represent or emphasize particular aspects of something else

metaphorical (adjective)

using metaphors

monosyllabic (adjective)

linguistics a monosyllabic word has only one syllable

native (adjective)

your native language or native tongue is the first language that you learn, usually in the country where you were born

non-standard (adjective)

linguistics non-standard forms of language are different from those that are usually considered to be correct

old (adjective)

used with the names of languages to refer to the form of the language that was used in the past

phatic (adjective)

used for describing words or phrases that you use for social reasons, for example in order to be friendly, rather than in order to give information

pidgin (adjective)

used for describing speech or language in which a foreign language is mixed with the speaker’s first language

polysemous (adjective)

a polysemous word has more than one meaning

proverbial (adjective)

used when you are describing something with an expression from a proverb

sesquipedalian (adjective)

very formal used to describe a very long word with many syllables

spoken (adjective)

spoken language is things that people say, not things that they write

syncretic (adjective)

linguistics combining two or more inflections that were originally separate

synonymous (adjective)

linguistics if two words are synonymous, they have the same meaning or almost the same meaning

tautological (adjective)

a tautological statement, sentence etc repeats its meaning in an unnecessary way by using different words to say the same thing

technical (adjective)

technical language is difficult to understand for people who do not know a lot about the subject

umbrella (adjective)

an umbrella word is used for talking about a lot of specific things of the same general type

unmarked (adjective)

linguistics an unmarked word or phrase is generally used in normal English rather than being, for example, formal or informal

unpronounceable (adjective)

difficult to pronounce

Synonyms and antonyms of Words used to describe language in British Thesaurus