natural language

[ nach-er-uhl lang-gwigzh, nach-ruhl ]

noun

1. a language used as a native tongue by a group of speakers, as Arabic, English, Mandarin, etc.:

   Natural languages reflect cultural values like honesty or diplomacy in the manner and tone by which they communicate information.

2. a language that has developed and evolved naturally, through use by human beings, as opposed to an invented or constructed language, as a computer programming language (often used attributively): The search engine will return accurate results for keyword searches and natural language queries. Compare artificial language ( def ).

   Natural language is characterized by ambiguity that artificial intelligence struggles to interpret.

   The search engine will return accurate results for keyword searches and natural language queries.

natural language

noun

1. a language that has evolved naturally as a means of communication among people Compare artificial language formal language
2. languages of this kind considered collectively

Word History and Origins

Origin of natural language¹

First recorded in 1770–75 natural language fordef 1; 1960–65 natural language fordef 2

Example Sentences

As to what degree the brain has a natural language, there are more questions and answers.

From The Daily Beast

Now she was awake; her dream was over, and the natural language of the man was still ringing in her ears!

From Project Gutenberg

Her natural language, Masson tells us, was the Corsican patois.

From Project Gutenberg

Then they, hearing him speak in Greek, which was their natural language, became the more tender-hearted towards him.

From Project Gutenberg

The fundamental fact is that for him Scots was the natural language of the emotions, English of the intellect.

From Project Gutenberg

The pictorial illustrations show the location of each of the phrenological organs and their natural language.

From Project Gutenberg