WRITTEN LANGUAGE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does written language mean? 

• WRITTEN LANGUAGE (noun)
  The noun WRITTEN LANGUAGE has 1 sense:

1. communication by means of written symbols (either printed or handwritten)

  Familiarity information: WRITTEN LANGUAGE used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• WRITTEN LANGUAGE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Communication by means of written symbols (either printed or handwritten)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

black and white; written communication; written language

Hypernyms ("written language" is a kind of...):

communication (something that is communicated by or to or between people or groups)

Meronyms (parts of "written language"):

folio; leaf (a sheet of any written or printed material (especially in a manuscript or book))

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

transcription; written text (something written, especially copied from one medium to another, as a typewritten version of dictation)

writing (letters or symbols that are written or imprinted on a surface to represent the sounds or words of a language)

piece of writing; writing; written material (the work of a writer; anything expressed in letters of the alphabet (especially when considered from the point of view of style and effect))

writing ((usually plural) the collected work of an author)

prescription (written instructions from a physician or dentist to a druggist concerning the form and dosage of a drug to be issued to a given patient)

prescription (written instructions for an optician on the lenses for a given person)

reading; reading material (written material intended to be read)

correspondence (communication by the exchange of letters)

code; codification (a set of rules or principles or laws (especially written ones))

print (the text appearing in a book, newspaper, or other printed publication)

 Context examples 

We may be trusted, I think, in chusing some play most perfectly unexceptionable; and I can conceive no greater harm or danger to any of us in conversing in the elegant written language of some respectable author than in chattering in words of our own.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)