as in colloquial
used in or suitable for speech and not formal writing
writes essays in a very easy-to-read, vernacular style
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
1
as in idiom
Synonyms & Similar Words
2
as in binomial
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of vernacular
Sam Cochran, Architectural Digest, 19 Dec. 2024
Bachman, then 30 years old, had already won national acclaim, and toured throughout the United States and Europe, with a sprawling collection of vernacular guitar music, spread across more than a dozen releases.
—Brendan Fitzgerald, Smithsonian Magazine, 27 Dec. 2024
Richard Olsen, Forbes, 30 Oct. 2024
Since 2015, the term lynching, a word with 18th-century American roots, has become part of the Indian vernacular.
—Mohammad Ali, WIRED, 14 Apr. 2020
See all Example Sentences for vernacular 
Adjective
Glass-block walls nod to the Big Apple vernacular while a mural by Shantell Martin invokes the local legacy of street art.
—Sam Cochran, Architectural Digest, 19 Dec. 2024
Bachman, then 30 years old, had already won national acclaim, and toured throughout the United States and Europe, with a sprawling collection of vernacular guitar music, spread across more than a dozen releases.
—Brendan Fitzgerald, Smithsonian Magazine, 27 Dec. 2024
Noun
Comparatively, while New Hampshire is quiet, with a small core group of practitioners working in regional vernaculars, Maine and Vermont boast a disproportionate number of architects—Elliott Architects and Birdseye among them—engaged in custom residential equal to that of the nation’s highest.
—Richard Olsen, Forbes, 30 Oct. 2024
Since 2015, the term lynching, a word with 18th-century American roots, has become part of the Indian vernacular.
—Mohammad Ali, WIRED, 14 Apr. 2020
See all Example Sentences for vernacular
Recent Examples of Synonyms for vernacular
Adjective
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What is a Green Beret? Green Beret is the colloquial name used for members of the U.S. Army Special Forces.—
Fernando Cervantes Jr.,
USA TODAY,
2 Jan. 2025
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Purple group — colloquial suffixes (CORE, GATE, MANIA, PILLED) No perfect game, but that's nine wins in a row.—
Kris Holt,
Forbes,
5 Dec. 2024
Noun
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Knowing the correct four-word idioms is a sign of education.—
Rachel Chang,
Travel + Leisure,
4 Feb. 2025
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Glover’s score — for rock band, piano and acoustic strings — evokes pop idioms while politely sidestepping direct quotation.—
Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim,
New York Times,
20 Jan. 2025
Noun
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She is credited with naming and cataloging hundreds of native plants in the Hudson River Valley using Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus’ then-new binomial system of botanical nomenclature.—
Jessica Damiano,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
24 Mar. 2024
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The watermelons grown in the United States were soon subsumed under the same Latin binomial.—
Alex Fox,
Smithsonian Magazine,
2 June 2021
Noun
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Every language has its dialects, and each dialect can have its unique spin on colloquialisms.—
Victoria Song,
The Verge,
24 Jan. 2025
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There is even a colloquialism for those who curry favor among the moneyed on the island of Palm Beach.—
Miami Herald Archives,
Miami Herald,
8 Jan. 2025
Noun
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The idea of an assist by a goalkeeper, in a huge amount of cases, is almost a misnomer.—
Nick Miller,
The Athletic,
6 Feb. 2025
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This milestone, in which the ionized soup became neutral atoms, is known as recombination (a misnomer, since nuclei and electrons had never combined before).—
The Editors,
JSTOR Daily,
30 Jan. 2025
Noun
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My problem is when breaking is used — to borrow pro-wrestling parlance — to create a cheap pop.—
Tony Maglio,
IndieWire,
11 Feb. 2025
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Does Slot’s casual use of xG in a press conference suggest that advanced metrics have become fully embedded in football’s mainstream parlance?—
Mark Carey,
The Athletic,
23 Jan. 2025
Noun
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The medication — taken weekly by injection in the thigh, stomach or arm — is a brand name for semaglutide, which works in the brain to impact satiety.—
Vanessa Etienne,
People.com,
30 Jan. 2025
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On its inaugural flight, the Pilgrim didn’t carry a brand name.—
April White,
JSTOR Daily,
20 Jan. 2025
Noun
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So my focus is on regionalism and international tax developments.—
Tax Notes Staff,
Forbes,
20 Nov. 2024
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But European regionalism has always also included ethnic and cultural elements connected to Christianity and whiteness.—
Hans Kundnani,
Foreign Affairs,
10 Sep. 2024
Thesaurus Entries Near vernacular
Cite this Entry
“Vernacular.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/vernacular. Accessed 21 Feb. 2025.
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