VERNACULAR

Pronunciation (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does vernacular mean? 

• VERNACULAR (noun)
  The noun VERNACULAR has 2 senses:

1. a characteristic language of a particular group (as among thieves)
2. the everyday speech of the people (as distinguished from literary language)

  Familiarity information: VERNACULAR used as a noun is rare.

• VERNACULAR (adjective)
  The adjective VERNACULAR has 1 sense:

1. being or characteristic of or appropriate to everyday language

  Familiarity information: VERNACULAR used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• VERNACULAR (noun)

Meaning:

A characteristic language of a particular group (as among thieves)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

vernacular; patois; lingo; jargon; argot; slang; cant

Context example:

they don't speak our lingo

Hypernyms ("vernacular" is a kind of...):

non-standard speech (speech that differs from the usual accepted, easily recognizable speech of native adult members of a speech community)

Domain member usage:

buy it; pip out (be killed or die)

give (occur)

bumf; bumph (toilet paper (often used for printed matter that might as well be used as toilet paper))

bitch (an unpleasant difficulty)

heebie-jeebies; jitters; screaming meemies (extreme nervousness)

the shits; the trots (obscene terms for diarrhea)

juice (energetic vitality)

skinful (a quantity of alcoholic drink sufficient to make you drunk)

key (a kilogram of a narcotic drug)

big bucks; big money; bundle; megabucks; pile (a large sum of money (especially as pay or profit))

juice (electric current)

wog ((offensive British slang) term used by the British to refer to people of color from Africa or Asia)

tripper ((slang) someone who has taken a psychedelic drug and is undergoing hallucinations)

squeeze ((slang) a person's girlfriend or boyfriend)

feel (pass one's hands over the sexual organs of)

hoof (dance in a professional capacity)

chuck; ditch (throw away)

drop-dead (extremely)

clean; plum; plumb (completely; used as intensifiers)

slam-bang (violent and sudden and noisy)

pint-size; pint-sized; runty; sawed-off; sawn-off (well below average height)

bolshy; stroppy (obstreperous)

mean (excellent)

built; stacked; well-stacked (well or attractively formed with respect to physique)

some (remarkable)

grotty (very unpleasant or offensive)

uncool ((spoken slang) unfashionable and boring)

freaky (strange and somewhat frightening)

can-do (marked by a willingness to tackle a job and get it done)

besotted; blind drunk; blotto; cockeyed; crocked; fuddled; loaded; pie-eyed; pissed; pixilated; plastered; potty; slopped; sloshed; smashed; soaked; soused; sozzled; squiffy; stiff; tiddley; tiddly; tight; tipsy; wet (very drunk)

square; straight (rigidly conventional or old-fashioned)

bunk off; play hooky (play truant from work or school)

schlockmeister; shlockmeister ((slang) a merchant who deals in shoddy or inferior merchandise)

out-and-outer (someone who is excellent at something)

old man ((slang) boss)

bay window; corporation; pot; potbelly; tummy (slang for a paunch)

soup-strainer; toothbrush (slang for a mustache)

legs (staying power)

cert (an absolute certainty)

dreck; schlock; shlock (merchandise that is shoddy or inferior)

nick ((British slang) a prison)

Mickey Finn (slang term for knockout drops)

gat; rod (a gangster's pistol)

deck (street name for a packet of illegal drugs)

caff (informal British term for a cafe)

shakedown (a very thorough search of a person or a place)

square-bashing (drill on a barracks square)

shakedown (extortion of money (as by blackmail))

heist; rip-off (the act of stealing)

bite (a portion removed from the whole)

niff; pong (an unpleasant smell)

corker ((dated slang) a remarkable or excellent thing or person)

guvnor ((British slang) boss)

good egg ((old-fashioned slang) a good person)

boffin ((British slang) a scientist or technician engaged in military research)

bad egg ((old-fashioned slang) a bad person)

baby; sister ((slang) sometimes used as a term of address for attractive young women)

airhead (a flighty scatterbrained simpleton)

Jap; Nip ((offensive slang) a person of Japanese descent)

'hood ((slang) a neighborhood)

nosh-up (a large satisfying meal)

burnup (a high-speed motorcycle race on a public road)

bun-fight; bunfight ((Briticism) a grand formal party on an important occasion)

skin flick (a pornographic movie)

applesauce; codswallop; folderol; rubbish; trash; tripe; trumpery; wish-wash (nonsensical talk or writing)

baloney; bilgewater; boloney; bosh; drool; humbug; taradiddle; tarradiddle; tommyrot; tosh; twaddle (pretentious or silly talk or writing)

hooey; poppycock; stuff; stuff and nonsense (senseless talk)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "vernacular"):

street name (slang for something (especially for an illegal drug))

rhyming slang (slang that replaces words with rhyming words or expressions and then typically omits the rhyming component)

Meaning:

The everyday speech of the people (as distinguished from literary language)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("vernacular" is a kind of...):

non-standard speech (speech that differs from the usual accepted, easily recognizable speech of native adult members of a speech community)

• VERNACULAR (adjective)

Meaning:

Being or characteristic of or appropriate to everyday language

Synonyms:

vernacular; vulgar; common

Context examples:

common parlance / a vernacular term / vernacular speakers / the vulgar tongue of the masses / the technical and vulgar names for an animal species

Similar:

informal (used of spoken and written language)