The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
n. The study of the nature, structure, and variation of language, including phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, sociolinguistics, and pragmatics.
the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
n. The science of languages, or of the origin, signification, and application of words; glossology.
The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
n. The science of languages, or of the origin and history of words; the general and comparative study of human languages and of their elements. Also called comparative philology.
WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
n. the humanistic study of language and literature
n. the scientific study of language
Word Usage
"Hell, you probably think Chomsky's work in linguistics is rubbish just because he's a frothing loon on any other subject."