vernacular
Americanadjective
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(of language) native to a place (literary ).
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expressed or written in the native language of a place, as literary works.
a vernacular poem.
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using such a language.
a vernacular speaker.
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of or relating to such a language.
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using plain, everyday, ordinary language.
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of, relating to, or characteristic of architectural vernacular.
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noting or pertaining to the common name for a plant or animal.
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Obsolete. (of a disease) endemic.
noun
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the native speech or language of a place.
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the language or vocabulary peculiar to a class or profession.
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a vernacular word or expression.
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the plain variety of language in everyday use by ordinary people.
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the common name of an animal or plant as distinguished from its Latin scientific name.
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a style of architecture exemplifying the commonest techniques, decorative features, and materials of a particular historical period, region, or group of people.
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any medium or mode of expression that reflects popular taste or local styles.
noun
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the commonly spoken language or dialect of a particular people or place
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a local style of architecture, in which ordinary houses are built
this architect has re-created a true English vernacular
adjective
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relating to, using, or in the vernacular
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designating or relating to the common name of an animal or plant
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built in the local style of ordinary houses, rather than a grand architectural style
Related Words
See language.
Other Word Forms
- nonvernacular adjective
- vernacularly adverb
Etymology
Origin of vernacular
First recorded in 1595–1605; from Latin vernācul(us), “household, domestic, native” (apparently adjective use of vernāculus, diminutive of verna “slave born in the master's household”; further origin uncertain) + -ar 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The painting’s full-length figures, like those in Old Master official portraits, are here translated into a contemporary vernacular, with a radiant Aline Charigot, Renoir’s future wife, in the arms of his friend Paul Lhote.
These events will remain the game's "tentpoles", to use the latest corporate vernacular.
From BBC
When he made it one of his catch phrases on ESPN, the expression entered the sports vernacular.
From Los Angeles Times
Two, he brought a black vernacular and sensibility to sports announcing in a way that embraced an entire constituency of viewers who, yes, were very interested in sports.
He was a magician, a linguist who reinvented and built his own emotional vernacular.
From Los Angeles Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
