noun
- a language used to describe or analyze another language
Usage: linguistics; technical
Examples
- In linguistics, English can serve as a metalanguage to describe French grammar.
- The teacher used simple metalanguage to explain verb tenses to her students.
- Computer programming languages often require a metalanguage for documentation.
- The dictionary uses English as a metalanguage to define words from various languages.
- Scholars developed a specialized metalanguage for analyzing ancient texts.
- The metalanguage of literary criticism includes terms like metaphor and symbolism.