Standard Lemma guide

sociolect

noun · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈsəʊ.ʃɪ.ə(ʊ).lɛkt/
  • Received-Pronunciation: /-sɪ-/
  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈsəʊ.ʃə(ʊ).lɛkt/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • General-American: /ˈsoʊ.ʃi.əˌlɛkt/
  • General-American: /-si-/
  • General-American: /ˈsoʊ.ʃəˌlɛkt/

1

noun

Meaning 1

The variant of language used by a social group such as a socioeconomic class, an ethnic group, an age group, etc.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: human-sciences, linguistics, sciences, social-science, sociolinguistics, sociology

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From socio- + -lect, by analogy with dialect, idiolect, etc.

Across languages

Translations

45 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Afrikaans: sosiolek — variant of language used by a social group
  • Arabic: لهجة اجتماعية — variant of language used by a social group
  • Azerbaijani: sosiolekt — variant of language used by a social group
  • Basque: soziolekto — variant of language used by a social group
  • Breton: sokiolektenn — variant of language used by a social group
  • Bulgarian: социален диалект (socialen dialekt) — variant of language used by a social group
  • Catalan: sociolecte — variant of language used by a social group
  • Chinese Mandarin: 社會方言 /社会方言 (shèhuì fāngyán) — variant of language used by a social group
  • Czech: sociolekt — variant of language used by a social group
  • Danish: sociolekt — variant of language used by a social group
  • Dutch: sociolect — variant of language used by a social group
  • Esperanto: sociolekto — variant of language used by a social group
  • Estonian: sotsiolekt — variant of language used by a social group
  • Faroese: sosiolekt — variant of language used by a social group
  • Faroese: stættarmálføri — variant of language used by a social group
  • Finnish: sosiolekti — variant of language used by a social group
  • French: sociolecte — variant of language used by a social group
  • Galician: sociolecto — variant of language used by a social group
  • Georgian: სოციოლექტი (sociolekṭi) — variant of language used by a social group
  • German: Soziolekt — variant of language used by a social group
  • Greek: κοινωνιόλεκτος (koinoniólektos) — variant of language used by a social group
  • Hebrew: סוציולקט — variant of language used by a social group
  • Hungarian: szociolektus — variant of language used by a social group
  • Icelandic: stéttamállýska — variant of language used by a social group
  • Icelandic: félagsleg málgerð — variant of language used by a social group
  • Indonesian: sosiolek — variant of language used by a social group
  • Italian: socioletto — variant of language used by a social group
  • Limburgish: sociolek — variant of language used by a social group
  • Lombard: sociolet — variant of language used by a social group
  • Macedonian: социоле́кт (sociolékt) — variant of language used by a social group
  • Norwegian Bokmål: sosiolekt — variant of language used by a social group
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: sosiolekt — variant of language used by a social group
  • Piedmontese: sociolèt — variant of language used by a social group
  • Polish: socjolekt — variant of language used by a social group
  • Portuguese: socioleto — variant of language used by a social group
  • Romanian: sociolect — variant of language used by a social group
  • Russian: социоле́кт (sociolékt) — variant of language used by a social group
  • Serbo-Croatian: sociolekt — variant of language used by a social group
  • Slovak: sociolekt — variant of language used by a social group
  • Spanish: sociolecto — variant of language used by a social group
  • Swedish: sociolekt — variant of language used by a social group
  • Tagalog: sosyolek — variant of language used by a social group
  • Tatar: социолект (sotsiyolekt) — variant of language used by a social group
  • Ukrainian: соціолект (sociolekt) — variant of language used by a social group
  • Vietnamese: phương ngữ xã hội — variant of language used by a social group