Wording refers to the particular words a person uses in speech or writing and to the manner in which he uses them: The wording of the proposition is simple and direct. Verbiage is sometimes used as a synonym for wording, but more often it designates an excess of words in proportion to the ideas which they express: The author’s verbiage produced a document of mammoth size and microscopic import. Language , in one sense, denotes all sounds spoken and combined into words and sentences that human beings use for the communication of ideas or emotions. In a more limited sense, language refers to those words and combinations that have been systematized and confirmed by usage among members of a certain nation, people or race at a given period: the French language . In its widest sense, language signifies expression of thought by any means: the language of the eyes; the language of flowers. The word or expressions used in a specific business, science, etc., also are referred to as language : the language of mathematics. Vocabulary is the sum of words used or understood by a certain person, making up a particular language, or employed in some specific business, science, etc.: the immeasurable contribution of Greek to the English vocabulary ; a lawyer’s vocabulary . It refers, by extension, to a person’s preference in the area of language: Hardy’s vocabulary was largely Anglo-Saxon. Wordage is a formal and not widely used term meaning words collectively. But wordage can refer to the amount of words allotted for or taken up by a piece of writing, such as a newspaper article: an analysis that was inevitably superficial, considering the compressed wordage he was permitted.