A person’s unique patterns of vocabulary or idiom selection, grammar, or pronunciation are described as their what?

• A. Idiolect
• B. Dialect
• C. Sociolect
• D. Register

Answer: (A)

An individual's unique patterns of vocabulary, idioms, grammar, and pronunciation are called an idiolect. This term captures the personal linguistic fingerprint that makes the way one person uses language distinctive from others. A dialect, in contrast, is a broader language variety shared by a community—often tied to a particular region or social group. A sociolect refers to variation tied to social factors like age, class, or occupation, rather than to an individual’s unique speech. Register describes the level of formality or the situational style of language, such as casual versus formal or technical versus everyday speech. So the correct term is idiolect because it denotes the one-person, individualized way someone speaks.