Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The specialized language of a trade, profession, or similar group, especially when viewed as difficult to understand by outsiders.
- noun Nonsensical or incoherent language.
- noun A hybrid language or dialect; a pidgin. Not in technical use.
- intransitive verb To speak in or use jargon.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Confused, unintelligible talk; irregular, formless speech or language; gabble; gibberish; babble.
- noun Specifically A barbarous mixed speech, without literary monuments; a rude language resulting from the mixture of two or more discordant languages, especially of a cultivated language with a barbarous one: as, the Chinook jargon; the jargon called Pidgin-English.
- noun Any phraseology peculiar to a sect, profession, trade, art, or science; professional slang or cant.
- noun Synonyms Chatter, Babble, etc. See
prattle , n. - To utter unintelligible sounds.
- noun A colorless, yellowish, or smoky variety of the mineral zircon from Ceylon.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Min.) A variety of zircon. See
zircon . - intransitive verb To utter jargon; to emit confused or unintelligible sounds; to talk unintelligibly, or in a harsh and noisy manner.
- noun Confused, unintelligible language; gibberish.
- noun an artificial idiom or dialect; cant language; slang.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun uncountable A
technical terminology unique to a particular subject. - noun countable Language characteristic of a particular
group . - noun uncountable Speech or language that is
incomprehensible orunintelligible ;gibberish . - noun A variety of
zircon
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a colorless (or pale yellow or smoky) variety of zircon
- noun specialized technical terminology characteristic of a particular subject
- noun a characteristic language of a particular group (as among thieves)
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word jargon.
Examples
-
While the jargon is all retro health and safety-education material, the culty fetishism is more J.G. Ballard than CPR.
Boing Boing: September 18, 2005 - September 24, 2005 Archives 2005
-
They may wrap their writing in jargon and statistical mumbo jumbo, but the ideas themselves are not that hard to grasp (comparative advantage not withstanding!).
Lighthouses, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009
-
The language is pretty vague and excessively rich in jargon, but we see that as more of an ‘episode’ than just ‘DLC.’
-
More legal speak from Mr. Cushing, more jargon from the viewer table.
-
Avoid jargon – you might think it sounds clever but jargon is a no-no for readers.
-
They may wrap their writing in jargon and statistical mumbo jumbo, but the ideas themselves are not that hard to grasp (comparative advantage not withstanding!).
Lighthouses, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009
-
Science journalist Dallas Murphy's book explains the intricate link between the global ocean and the atmosphere in jargon-free prose that is easy for readers to understand.
Our Thirst for Oil: A Deeper Dive Michael Totty 2010
-
For their part, parents say they don't like when teachers spend conferences speaking in jargon, or trying to prove they're good at their jobs.
Acing Parent-Teacher Conferences Jeffrey Zaslow 2010
-
The deficits, the multipliers, all of the jargon is cover for their fear of being proven irrevocably wrong.
-
Avoid jargon – you might think it sounds clever but jargon is a no-no for readers.
Blogger’s style guide: Five tips on tone « Subs' Standards 2010
reesetee commented on the word jargon
A refreshing point of view here.
October 17, 2008
vanishedone commented on the word jargon
Boing Boing: 'Perhaps print journalism foreshadowed its fledgling future long ago with its morbid jargon. Morgue. Gutter. Beat. Deadline. Dummy. Kill. Widow. Orphan.'
March 13, 2009