as in dialect
the special terms or expressions of a particular group or field
the medical patois that the hospital staffers used among themselves was incomprehensible to me
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Examples Sentences
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Recent Examples of patois
Most of Levy's stories run fewer than 12 pages and feel like very long flash fiction, written in a voice dense with the chaotic patois of the internet.
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Leland Cheuk, NPR, 14 May 2024
One complaint was Jar Jar’s accent, which some perceived as derived from Jamaican patois.
—Carlos Aguilar, New York Times, 3 May 2024
Peddlers greet customers in Belize’s official language, English, or Kriol, the patois formed centuries ago when Britons brought enslaved Africans to what is now Belize.
—Simon Romero Alejandro Cegarra, New York Times, 28 Feb. 2024
These individuals’ diverse languages melded together, and a distinctive patois and culture started to emerge.
—Joshua Kagavi, Smithsonian Magazine, 29 Feb. 2024
See all Example Sentences for patois 
Leland Cheuk, NPR, 14 May 2024
One complaint was Jar Jar’s accent, which some perceived as derived from Jamaican patois.
—Carlos Aguilar, New York Times, 3 May 2024
Peddlers greet customers in Belize’s official language, English, or Kriol, the patois formed centuries ago when Britons brought enslaved Africans to what is now Belize.
—Simon Romero Alejandro Cegarra, New York Times, 28 Feb. 2024
These individuals’ diverse languages melded together, and a distinctive patois and culture started to emerge.
—Joshua Kagavi, Smithsonian Magazine, 29 Feb. 2024
See all Example Sentences for patois
Recent Examples of Synonyms for patois
Noun
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Jones and Brody learned Hungarian and worked with a dialect coach for the movie.Carole Horst, Variety, 17 Dec. 2024
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Turns out, dat good ole dialect is a put-on: James speaks like a professor.Rachel Flynn, People.com, 3 Dec. 2024
Noun
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About 70% of big businesses that have AI training focus on teaching concepts and terminology, according to Mercer’s data.Catherine McGrath, Fortune, 3 Dec. 2024
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Here’s a terminology detail: an AI accelerator can be a physical chip, like a GPU or an ASIC.John Werner, Forbes, 27 Nov. 2024
Noun
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McBride possesses a skill that few of his peers can claim: a vocabulary for critically analyzing screen acting and how its gestures and movements cohere with the director and cinematographer’s tools.Jim Hemphill, IndieWire, 4 Dec. 2024
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The future of communicating with buyers and customers is less about impressive vocabulary and more about genuine connection.Renae Gregoire, Forbes, 4 Dec. 2024
Noun
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For example, 22 policies (44.0%) did not include language stating that parents must be notified of incidents as soon as possible.Nolan McKendry | The Center Square, Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government, 16 Dec. 2024
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Onto the page spilled more than ten thousand lines of the richest and most resourceful blank verse in the English language, arranged into ten books in 1667, then rearranged into twelve in 1674.Merve Emre, The New Yorker, 16 Dec. 2024
Noun
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Jone [Southern slang meaning make fun, joke around].Andre Gee, Rolling Stone, 12 Dec. 2024
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Previous generations of slang terms usually had one-to-one translations to, for lack of a better word, normal English.Evan Porter, Parents, 3 Dec. 2024
Thesaurus Entries Near patois
Cite this Entry
“Patois.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/patois. Accessed 21 Dec. 2024.
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