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Reference.org
Metalanguage
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<p>In <a href="/facts/Logic/8JnpJLtt">logic</a> and <a href="/facts/Linguistics/oQuamvf2">linguistics</a>, a metalanguage is a language used to describe another language, often called the <i>object language</i>. Expressions in a metalanguage are often distinguished from those in the object language by the use of italics, <a href="/facts/Quotation_mark/hIdA4WEo">quotation marks</a>, or writing on a separate line. The structure of sentences and phrases in a metalanguage can be described by a <a href="/facts/Metasyntax/Mmb3tj6n">metasyntax</a>. For example, to say that the word "noun" can be used as a noun in a sentence, one could write <i>"noun" is a <noun></i>. </p>