1. regional variety of language: a regional variety of a language, with differences in vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation
2. language spoken by class or profession: a form of a language spoken by members of a social class or profession
3. nonstandard speech: nonstandard spoken language
4. member of language family: one of a family of related languages Romance dialects such as French and Italian
[Mid-16th century. Directly or via French< Latin dialectus "way of speaking, dialect" < Greek dialektos "conversation, language, local speech" < dialegesthai (see dialogue)]
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