Language vs Conversation - What's the difference?

language | conversation | Synonyms |

Language is a synonym of conversation.

As nouns the difference between language and conversation

is that language is (lb) 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 or language can be a languet, a flat plate in or below the flue pipe of an organ while conversation is conversation.

As a verb language

is to communicate by language; to express in language.

Other Comparisons: What's the difference?



Etymology 1

(etyl) language, from (etyl) language, from .


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This person is saying "hello" in American sign language . }} (wikipedia language)
  • (lb) 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 0913580856), 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.
  • * {{quote-book, page=50, year=1900, author=(w)
  • , title= The History of the Caliph Vathek , passage=No language could express his rage and despair.}}
  • * 2000 , Geary Hobson, The Last of the Ofos (ISBN 0816519595), page 113:
  • (lb) The ability to communicate using words.
  • (lb) The vocabulary and usage of a particular specialist field.
  • *
  • The expression of thought (the communication of meaning) in a specified way.
  • * 2001 , Eugene C. Kennedy, ?Sara C. Charles, On Becoming a Counselor (ISBN 0824519132):
  • A body of sounds, signs and signals by which animals communicate, and by which plants are sometimes also thought to communicate.
  • A computer language; a machine language.
  • * 2015 , Kent D. Lee, Foundations of Programming Languages (ISBN 3319133144), page 94:
  • In fact pointers are called references in these languages' to distinguish them from pointers in ' languages like C and C++.
  • (lb) Manner of expression.
  • * (rfdate) Cowper:
  • Their language simple, as their manners meek,
  • (lb) The particular words used in a speech or a passage of text.
  • (lb) Profanity.
  • *{{quote-book, page=500, year=1978, author=James Carroll
  • , title= Mortal Friends, isbn=0440157897 , passage="Where the hell is Horace?" ¶ "There he is. He's coming. You shouldn't use language ."}}
    * (form of communication) tongue, speech (spoken language) * (vocabulary of a particular field) lingo (colloquial), jargon, terminology, phraseology, parlance * (computer language) computer language, programming language, machine language * (particular words used) phrasing, wording, terminology
    Derived terms
    * artificial language * auxiliary language * bad language * body language * computing language * constructed language * endangered language * extinct language * foreign language * formal language * foul language * international language * language barrier * language code * language cop * language death * language extinction * language family * language lab, language laboratory * language model * language of flowers * language planning * language police * language pollution * language processing * language school * language shift * language technology * language transfer * languaging * machine language * mathematical language * mind one's language * natural language * pattern language * programming language * private language * secular language * sign language * speak someone's language * standard language * vehicular language * vernacular language


  • To communicate by language; to express in language.
  • * (rfdate) Fuller:
  • Others were languaged in such doubtful expressions that they have a double sense.

    See also

    * lexis, term, word * bilingual * linguistics * multilingual * trilingual

    Etymology 2

    Alteration of (m).


    (en noun)
  • A languet, a flat plate in or below the flue pipe of an organ.
  • * 1896 , William Horatio Clarke, The Organist's Retrospect , page 79:


    * ----



    (en noun)
  • * 1699 , , Heads designed for an essay on conversations
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5 , passage=When this conversation was repeated in detail within the hearing of the young woman in question, and undoubtedly for his benefit, Mr. Trevor threw shame to the winds and scandalized the Misses Brewster then and there by proclaiming his father to have been a country storekeeper.}}
  • * , chapter=12
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=All this was extraordinarily distasteful to Churchill.
  • (obsolete) Interaction; commerce or intercourse with other people; dealing with others.
  • * 1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , Acts XI:
  • Yt chaunsed thatt a whole yere they had their conversacion with the congregacion there, and taught moche people insomoche thatt the disciples off Antioche we the fyrst that wer called Christen.
  • (archaic) Behaviour, the way one conducts oneself; a person's way of life.
  • *, New York Review of Books, 2001, p.50:
  • There are many that take no heed what happeneth to others by bad conversation , and therefore overthrow themselves in the same manner through their own fault, not foreseeing dangers manifest.
  • (obsolete) Sexual intercourse.
  • * 1723 , Charles Walker, Memoirs of the Life of Sally Salisbury :
  • (Ariadne)quitted her Lover (Theseus), for the tumultuous Conversation of (Bacchus).
  • * 1749 , (Henry Fielding), , Folio Society 1973, p. 333:
  • (computing) The protocol-based interaction between systems processing a transaction.
  • Synonyms

    * (expression and exchange of ideas through talking) banter, chat, chinwag, dialogue, discussion, interlocution, powwow, table talk

    Derived terms

    * conversational * conversation piece

    Usage notes

    * To make conversation means to start a conversation with someone with no other aim than to talk and break the silence. * To have' a conversation, and to ' hold a conversation, both mean to converse. * See


    (en verb)
  • (nonstandard, ambitransitive) To engage in conversation (with).
  • * 1983 , James Frederick Mason, Hélène Joséphine Harvitt, The French review
  • * 1989 , Robert L Gale, A Henry James encyclopedia
  • ...he has breakfasted me, dined me, conversationed me, absolutely caressed me. He has been really most kind and paternal...
  • * 2002 , Georgie Nickell, I Only Smoke on Thursdays
  • After all this conversationing , Scottie, my usual dance partner, was getting antsy and wanted to dance.




    * ----