par·​lance | \ ˈpär-lən(t)s \
Definition of parlance
1 : speech especially : formal debate or parley … battle and not parlance should determine his right and title. — John Speed
2 : manner or mode of speech : idiom The company's computer system had, in computer parlance, "crashed."
Examples of parlance in a Sentence
In gambling parlance, this is the equivalent of leaving money on the table, and in an economic lexicon, the equivalent of an economy that is churning below peak possibilities. — Dallas Morning News, Twin Cities, "Other voices: Trump plan to expand apprenticeships is timely, intriguing," 30 June 2019 If nothing else, the new mix promises to be more price-conscious and — in the parlance of every restaurant marketer of late — approachable. — Mark Kurlyandchik, Detroit Free Press, "Detroit's Fort Street Galley restaurant loses 2 vendors, promises change," 25 June 2019 The system will respond by crashing, or in the parlance of engineers, entering a kernel panic. — Dan Goodin, Ars Technica, "New vulnerabilities may let hackers remotely SACK Linux and FreeBSD systems," 18 June 2019 Mini-tables, for instance, were fashioned to look like the boxes of supplies — loot, in game parlance — that drop throughout battles. — Todd Martens, latimes.com, "'Fortnite' built a mini theme park complete with scented characters at the Forum," 16 June 2019 In the parlance of today, the Corcoran was canceled. — Kriston Capps, Washington Post, "A museum canceled its Robert Mapplethorpe show — and decades later, it's finally trying to make amends," 12 June 2019 General Motors has released pricing for its new carbon-composite truck bed, called CarbonPro in GMC parlance, and at the same time roughly halved estimates for its 2019 model year production. — Annie White, Car and Driver, "GMC Limits the Sierra's New CarbonPro Bed to a Pricey Option Package," 20 May 2019 But there are also far more lurid definitions in common parlance: Ralphing means upchucking from drink, boufing is ingesting alcohol anally (not kidding here, look it up), and the triangle is a three-way consisting of two men and one woman. — Lynn Yaeger, Vogue, "The Week in Washington: Ralphing, Boufing, and the Devil's Triangle," 30 Sep. 2018 In an emergency, the US Air procedures call for the copilot to take the controls while the captain makes the decisions, free from the mechanical burden of flying the plane—this is called Pilot Monitoring, or PM, in aviation parlance. — Allen St. John, Popular Mechanics, "What Went Right: Revisiting Captain "Sully" Sullenberger and the Miracle on the Hudson," 15 Jan. 2019
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'parlance.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
First Known Use of parlance
History and Etymology for parlance
Middle French, from Old French, from parler
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Dictionary Entries near parlance
parky
parlatoria
parlatory
Phrases Related to parlance
in common parlance
Statistics for parlance
Time Traveler for parlance
The first known use of parlance was in the 15th century
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English Language Learners Definition of parlance
formal : language used by a particular group of people
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