different between term vs language

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: tûm, IPA^(key): /t??m/
• (US) enPR: tûrm, IPA^(key): /t?m/
• Rhymes: -??(r)m

Etymology 1

From Middle English terme, borrowed from Old French terme, from Latin terminus (“a bound, boundary, limit, end; in Medieval Latin, also a time, period, word, covenant, etc.”).

Doublet of terminus. Old English had termen, from the same source.

Noun

term (plural terms)

1. That which limits the extent of anything; limit, extremity, bound, boundary.

2. A chronological limitation or restriction.

3. Any of the binding conditions or promises in a legal contract.

4. (geometry, archaic) A point, line, or superficies that limits.

   A line is the term of a superficies, and a superficies is the term of a solid.

5. A word or phrase, especially one from a specialised area of knowledge.

   "Algorithm" is a term used in computer science.

6. Relations among people.
7. Part of a year, especially one of the three parts of an academic year.
8. Duration of a set length; period in office of fixed length.
   1. The time during which legal courts are open.
   2. Certain days on which rent is paid.
9. With respect to a pregnancy, the period during which birth usually happens (approximately 40 weeks from conception).

10. (of a patent) The maximum period during which the patent can be maintained into force.
11. (archaic) A menstrual period.
    • 1660, Samuel Pepys, Diary

      My wife, after the absence of her terms for seven weeks, gave me hopes of her being with child, but on the last day of the year she hath them again.

12. (mathematics) Any value (variable or constant) or expression separated from another term by a space or an appropriate character, in an overall expression or table.

13. (logic) The subject or the predicate of a proposition; one of the three component parts of a syllogism, each one of which is used twice.

    • The subject and predicate of a proposition are, after Aristotle, together called its terms or extremes.

14. (astrology) An essential dignity in which unequal segments of every astrological sign have internal rulerships which affect the power and integrity of each planet in a natal chart.
15. (art) A statue of the upper body, sometimes without the arms, ending in a pillar or pedestal. [from 17th c.]
    • 1773, Joshua Reynolds, in John Ingamells, John Edgcumbe (eds.), The Letters of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Yale 2000, p. 42:

      You have been already informed, I have no doubt, of the subject which we have chosen: the adorning a Term of Hymen with festoons of flowers.

16. (nautical) A piece of carved work placed under each end of the taffrail.

    The Cabin is large and commodious, well calculated for the Accommodation of Pa?engers. Merchandi?e, Produce, &c. carried on the lowe?t Terms.[1]

Hyponyms

• blanket term
• collective term
• umbrella term
• (part of a year): trimester, semester, quarter

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

• idiom
• lexeme
• listeme
• word

Verb

term (third-person singular simple present terms, present participle terming, simple past and past participle termed)

1. To phrase a certain way; to name or call.

Synonyms

• describe as, designate, dub, name, refer to; see also Thesaurus:denominate

Adjective

term (not comparable)

1. (medicine, colloquial) Born or delivered at term.

References

• term on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 2

Clipping of terminal.

Noun

term (plural terms)

1. (computing, informal) A computer program that emulates a physical terminal.

Etymology 3

Short for terminate, termination, terminated employee, etc.

Verb

term (third-person singular simple present terms, present participle terming, simple past and past participle termed)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To terminate one's employment

Synonyms

• axe, fire, sack; see also Thesaurus:lay off

Noun

term (plural terms)

1. One whose employment has been terminated

Further reading

• term in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• term in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Albanian

Etymology

From ter.

Noun

term m (indefinite plural terma, definite singular terma, definite plural termat)

1. foundation, plot of land

Related terms

• ter

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -?rm

Noun

term m (plural termen, diminutive termpje n)

1. term; A word or phrase, especially one from a specialised area of knowledge.
2. (mathematics) term; One of the addends in a sum

Derived terms

• termsgewijs

Anagrams

• remt

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Latin terminus, via French terme and English term

Noun

term m (definite singular termen, indefinite plural termer, definite plural termene)

1. a term (word or phrase)

References

• “term” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Latin terminus, via French terme and English term

Noun

term m (definite singular termen, indefinite plural termar, definite plural termane)

1. a term (word or phrase)

References

• “term” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Swedish

Noun

term c

1. a term (a well-defined word or phrase, in a terminology)
2. (mathematics) a term (an operand in addition or subtraction)
3. singular of termer (“thermae, Roman baths”) (a facility for bathing in ancient Rome)

Declension

Related terms

• fackterm
• termbank
• terminologi

References

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: l?ng?gw?j, IPA^(key): /?læ??w?d??/
  • (General American, Canada) IPA^(key): (see /æ/ raising) [?le???w?d??]
• Hyphenation: lan?guage

Etymology 1

From Middle English langage, language, from Old French language, from Vulgar Latin *lingu?ticum, from Latin lingua (“tongue, speech, language”), from Old Latin dingua (“tongue”), from Proto-Indo-European *dn???wéh?s (“tongue, speech, language”). Displaced native Old English ?eþ?ode.

Noun

language (countable and uncountable, plural languages)

1. (countable) A body of words, and set of methods of combining them (called a grammar), understood by a community and used as a form of communication.
   • 1867, Report on the Systems of Deaf-Mute Instruction pursued in Europe, quoted in 1983 in History of the College for the Deaf, 1857-1907 ?ISBN, page 240:

     Hence the natural language of the mute is, in schools of this class, suppressed as soon and as far as possible, and its existence as a language, capable of being made the reliable and precise vehicle for the widest range of thought, is ignored.
2. (uncountable) The ability to communicate using words.

3. (uncountable) A sublanguage: the slang of a particular community or jargon of a particular specialist field.
   • 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, p. 35:

     And ‘blubbing’... Blubbing went out with ‘decent’ and ‘ripping’. Mind you, not a bad new language to start up. Nineteen-twenties schoolboy slang could be due for a revival.

4. (countable, uncountable, figuratively) The expression of thought (the communication of meaning) in a specified way; that which communicates something, as language does.
   • 2001, Eugene C. Kennedy, Sara C. Charles, On Becoming a Counselor ?ISBN:

     A tale about themselves [is] told by people with help from the universal languages of their eyes, their hands, and even their shirting feet.
5. (countable, uncountable) A body of sounds, signs and/or signals by which animals communicate, and by which plants are sometimes also thought to communicate.
   • 1983, The Listener, volume 110, page 14:

     A more likely hypothesis was that the attacked leaves were transmitting some airborne chemical signal to sound the alarm, rather like insects sending out warnings […] But this is the first time that a plant-to-plant language has been detected.

   • 2009, Animals in Translation, page 274:

     Prairie dogs use their language to refer to real dangers in the real world, so it definitely has meaning.

6. (computing, countable) A computer language; a machine language.
   • 2015, Kent D. Lee, Foundations of Programming Languages ?ISBN, page 94

     In fact pointers are called references in these languages to distinguish them from pointers in languages like C and C++.

7. (uncountable) Manner of expression.
   • 1782, William Cowper, Hope

     Their language simple, as their manners meek, […]

8. (uncountable) The particular words used in a speech or a passage of text.

9. (uncountable) Profanity.

Synonyms

• (form of communication): see Thesaurus:language
• (vocabulary of a particular field): see Thesaurus:jargon
• (computer language): computer language, programming language, machine language
• (particular words used): see Thesaurus:wording

Hypernyms

• medium

Hyponyms

• See Category:en:Languages

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

language (third-person singular simple present languages, present participle languaging, simple past and past participle languaged)

1. (rare, now nonstandard or technical) To communicate by language; to express in language.

   • Others were languaged in such doubtful expressions that they have a double sense.

See also

• bilingual
• lexis
• linguistics
• multilingual
• term
• trilingual
• word

Etymology 2

Alteration of languet.

Noun

language (plural languages)

1. A languet, a flat plate in or below the flue pipe of an organ.

References

• language at OneLook Dictionary Search
• language in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
• language in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

French

Noun

language m (plural languages)

1. Archaic spelling of langage.

Middle English

Noun

language (plural languages)

1. Alternative form of langage

Middle French

Alternative forms

• langage
• langaige
• languaige

Etymology

From Old French language.

Noun

language m (plural languages)

1. language (style of communicating)

Related terms

• langue

Descendants

• French: langage
  • Haitian Creole: langaj
    • ? English: langaj
  • Mauritian Creole: langaz

Old French

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Vulgar Latin *lingu?ticum, from Classical Latin lingua (“tongue, language”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lan??ad???/

Noun

language f (oblique plural languages, nominative singular language, nominative plural languages)

1. language (style of communicating)

Related terms

• langue, lingue

Descendants

• ? Middle English: language
  • English: language
• Middle French: language
  • French: langage
    • Haitian Creole: langaj
      • ? English: langaj
    • Mauritian Creole: langaz
• ? Old Spanish: lenguage