Interlocutor
noun ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
- 1 A person who takes part in dialogue or conversation: a locutive partner.
"Explanations which continually remind one's interlocutor of one's ignorance are a great damper upon the easy flow of talk."
- 2 A decree of a court.
"A decree of the English Court of Chancery is not entitled to more respect in Scotland than a decree (interlocutor) of the Scottish Court of Session in England."
- 3 a person who takes part in a conversation wordnet
- 4 A man in the middle of the line in a minstrel show who questions the endmen and acts as leader.
"The "interlocutor" greeted the audience and engaged in comical repartee with the "end men," named Tambo and Bones."
- 5 a performer in the middle of a minstrel line who engages the others in talk wordnet
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- 6 An interlocutory judgement or sentence.
Example
More examples"You can't have a conversation without an interlocutor."
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Medieval Latin interlocūtor, from the agent noun counterpart (via the suffix -tor) of Latin interloquor (“speak between, issue an interlocutory decree”), from inter- + loquor (“speak”).
From French interlocutoire, from Latin interlocūtōrium.
Related phrases
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.