Locution

//loʊ̯ˈkju.ʃn̩// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A phrase or expression peculiar to or characteristic of a given person or group of people. countable, uncountable

    "The television show host is widely recognized for his all-too-common locutions."

  2. 2
    a word or phrase that particular people use in particular situations wordnet
  3. 3
    The use of a word or phrase in an unusual or specialized way. countable, uncountable

    "So it cannot be supposed that promisings differ from other word-givings in that a word-giver makes a promise only if he or she uses the locution "I promise"."

  4. 4
    Style of discourse or usage, or any particular utterance in such style. countable, uncountable

    "informal locutions"

  5. 5
    A supernatural revelation where a religious figure, statue or icon speaks, usually to a saint. countable, uncountable

Synonyms

All synonyms
phraseadjectival phraseantonymarticulationchoice of wordsclause

Example

More examples

"The same locution could have a different illocutionary force in different contexts."

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin locūtiō, locūtiōnem (“speech”), from loquor (“speak”). Compare the French cognate locution.

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