colloquial

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colloquial

not formal or literary; belonging to or typical of ordinary or familiar language

Not to be confused with:

colloquium – an academic conference or seminar

colloquy – the act of conversing; a conversation

col·lo·qui·al

(kə-lō′kwē-əl)

adj.

1. Characteristic of or appropriate to the spoken language or to writing that seeks the effect of speech; informal.

2. Relating to conversation; conversational.

[From colloquy.]

col·lo′qui·al n.

col·lo′qui·al·ly adv.

col·lo′qui·al·ness n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

colloquial

(kəˈləʊkwɪəl)

adj

1. (Linguistics) of or relating to conversation

2. (Linguistics) denoting or characterized by informal or conversational idiom or vocabulary. Compare informal

colˈloquially adv

colˈloquialness n

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

col•lo•qui•al

(kəˈloʊ kwi əl)

adj.

1. characteristic of or suitable to ordinary or familiar conversation or writing rather than formal speech or writing; informal.

2. involving or using conversation.

[1745–55; colloquy + -al¹]

col•lo′qui•al•ly, adv.

col•lo′qui•al•ness, col•lo`qui•al′i•ty, n.

syn: colloquial, conversational, informal refer to types of speech or to usages that are not on a formal level. colloquial is often mistakenly used with a connotation of disapproval, as if it meant “vulgar” or “bad” or “incorrect” usage, whereas it merely describes a casual or familiar style used in speaking and writing: colloquial expressions. conversational refers to a style used in the oral exchange of ideas, opinions, etc.: The newsletter was written in an easy conversational style. informal means without formality, without strict attention to set forms, unceremonious; it describes the ordinary, everyday language of cultivated speakers: informal English.

colloquial

Used to describe words or expressions that are found in everyday speech.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Adj.

colloquial - characteristic of informal spoken language or conversation; "wrote her letters in a colloquial style"; "the broken syntax and casual enunciation of conversational English"

conversational

informal - used of spoken and written language

colloquial

adjective informal, familiar, everyday, vernacular, conversational, demotic, idiomatic He converses in colloquial Japanese as easily as in English.

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

colloquial

adjective

In the style of conversation:

chatty, confabulatory, conversational, informal.

Translations

عامّي، دارِج

hovorový

daglidags-dagligdagshverdags-kollokvialtalesprogs-

umgangssprachlich

familier

kötetlen társalgási nyelvi

talmáls-

colloquiale

paprastai sakantšnekamosios kalbõsšnekamosios kalbos žodis/posakis

sarunu-

dagligdags hverdags-talemåls-

konuşma diline ait

口语的

colloquial

[kəˈləʊkwɪəl] ADJ → coloquial, familiar

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

colloquial

[kəˈləʊkwiəl] adj [language, speech] → familier/ière; [term, sense] → familier/ière; [English] → parlé(e)

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

colloquial

adj → umgangssprachlich

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

colloquial

[kəˈləʊkwɪəl] adj (word, phrase) → familiare; (style) → colloquiale

colloquial

(kəˈləukwiəl) adjective

of or used in everyday informal, especially spoken, language. a colloquial expression.

colˈloquially adverb

colˈloquialism noun

an expression used in colloquial language.

Mentioned in ?

References in classic literature ?

For the iambic is, of all measures, the most colloquial: we see it in the fact that conversational speech runs into iambic lines more frequently than into any other kind of verse; rarely into hexameters, and only when we drop the colloquial intonation.

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His rhetoric there, and in certain of his historical studies, had a sort of luminous richness, without losing its colloquial ease.

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As they approached the Way-lee-way, however, the communicative old chief met with another and a very different occasion to exert his colloquial powers.

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When no such regular minister offered, a kind of colloquial prayer or two was made by some of the more gifted members, and a sermon was usually read, from Sterne, by Mr.

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Questions to be asked in regard to external style are such as these: Is it good or bad, careful or careless, clear and easy or confused and difficult; simple or complex; terse and forceful (perhaps colloquial) or involved and stately; eloquent, balanced, rhythmical; vigorous, or musical, languid, delicate and decorative; varied or monotonous; plain or figurative; poor or rich in connotation and poetic suggestiveness; beautiful, or only clear and strong?

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Having picked up a few of our most familiar colloquial expressions, he scattered them about over his conversation whenever they happened to occur to him, turning them, in his high relish for their sound and his general ignorance of their sense, into compound words and repetitions of his own, and always running them into each other, as if they consisted of one long syllable.

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The first part commences with an apology for his colloquial style; he is, as he has always been, the enemy of rhetoric, and knows of no rhetoric but truth; he will not falsify his character by making a speech.

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Indignation, the sense of moral insecurity engendered by such a treacherous proceeding joined to the immediate apprehension of a broken neck, would, in the colloquial phrase, put him in a state.

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Perceiving the necessity of doing something to disarm this female Cerberus, before his own purpose could be accomplished, the Doctor, reluctant as he was to encounter her tongue, found himself compelled to invite a colloquial communication.

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She can act, after all!" The instant the words escaped his lips he recovered himself, and glided off into his ordinary colloquial channels.

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Stables, which bids fair to outshine the old one, on which he has so long rested his colloquial reputation.

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Strangely enough, in both cases I took to that sort of thing in circumstances in which I did not ex- pect, in colloquial phrase, "to come out of it." Neither could I expect the record to outlast me.