Thinking and knowing
Synonyms for language
Synonyms for language: speech, terminology and words. Every one of them is a hand audited pair from the Synonym Stack word bank, shown below in the sense it fits, in a real sentence, and beside the words that only look close.
The 3 synonyms for language
Interchangeable with language, one per sense
Audited under language's own entry, so the meaning quoted is the one language carries in that sense.
- speechnoun, in the sense "the mental faculty or power of vocal communication"
- terminologynoun, in the sense "a system of words used to name things in a particular discipline"
Recorded from the other side of the pair
These entries were written under the other word and name language as the true synonym, so the sense quoted is theirs.
- wordswords is a noun in the sense "the text of a popular song or musical-comedy number"
Two directions, one standard: two audited under language and one under the partner word. Nothing here was expanded out of a thesaurus.
the mental faculty or power of vocal communication
Language sets homo sapiens apart from all other animals.
language in 2 more sentences, same sense
- Doctors say a stroke in that region of the brain can strip a person of language within seconds.
- The toddler's babbling was the first sign that her brain was building the pathways for language.
How it behaves: In this sense language usually appears as an uncountable noun without an article, often as the object of verbs such as acquire, lose, or develop.
The true synonym
speech
Same sentence, swapped: Speech sets homo sapiens apart from all other animals.
Close but different
These three are the other tiles the game puts on screen for this sense, and the note above says why the closest of them fails. None is a synonym for language in the sentence quoted.
- lyric
- terminology
- memory
a system of words used to name things in a particular discipline
The language of sociology.
The true synonym
terminology
Same sentence, swapped: The terminology of sociology.
Close but different
Wrong tiles, chosen to be tempting rather than absurd. The reason line above takes the nearest one apart; the rest fail the same sentence for their own reasons.
- speech
- lyric
- form
Where language turns up in the game
language is the word under test in two puzzles, spread across two difficulty tiers. It also sits on the board as one of the three wrong tiles in four other puzzles, where the answer is a different word entirely.
The puzzles where language is the trap
- wordsnoun, Tier 1, Foothills. The answer there is row, in the sense "an angry dispute", so language is there to be ruled out.
- audionoun, Tier 2, Treeline. The answer there is sound, in the sense "the audible part of a transmitted signal", and language is on the board beside it.
- letternoun, Tier 4, High Camp. The answer there is missive, in the sense "a written message addressed to a person or organization", and language is one of the three tiles that lose.
- memorynoun, Tier 4, High Camp. The answer there is retention, in the sense "the power of retaining and recalling past experience", with language sitting one tile away.
Play language
The bank on this page is the bank the game plays from, so language reaches you as a board rather than a definition: the sentence first, four tiles, and the meaning after you choose.
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Neighbours by theme before neighbours by difficulty, because thinking and knowing is the company language keeps.
Why the near miss missed, in the game as well as here
Synonym Stack plays from this exact bank. language carries 2 written reason lines, and the game shows them the moment a round ends, whichever tile you tapped.