Colloquialism

//kəˈloʊ.kwi.əˌlɪz.əm// noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A colloquial word or phrase; a common spoken expression. countable, uncountable

    "Before embarking on her trip, Kaefer expected to find a pan-Antarctic vocabulary, but quickly discovered there were distinct colloquialisms within each station."

  2. 2
    a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech wordnet
  3. 3
    A colloquial manner of speaking. countable, uncountable

    "The differences between slang, colloquialism and jargon are not clear-cut."

Synonyms

All synonyms
adagebarbarismcasualismcorruptionimproprietylocalism

Example

More examples

"Before embarking on her trip, Kaefer expected to find a pan-Antarctic vocabulary, but quickly discovered there were distinct colloquialisms within each station."

Etymology

From colloquial + -ism.

More for "colloquialism"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.