colloquial
Americanadjective
-
characteristic of or appropriate to ordinary or familiar conversation rather than formal speech or writing; informal.
- Antonyms:
- formal
-
involving or using conversation.
adjective
-
of or relating to conversation
-
denoting or characterized by informal or conversational idiom or vocabulary Compare informal
Related Words
Colloquial, conversational, informal refer to types of speech or to usages 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 is merely a familiar style used in speaking and writing. Conversational refers to a style used in the oral exchange of ideas, opinions, etc.: an easy conversational style. Informal means without formality, without strict attention to set forms, unceremonious: an informal manner of speaking; it describes the ordinary, everyday language of cultivated speakers.
Other Word Forms
- colloquiality noun
- colloquially adverb
- colloquialness noun
- quasi-colloquial adjective
- quasi-colloquially adverb
- semicolloquial adjective
- semicolloquially adverb
- uncolloquial adjective
- uncolloquially adverb
Etymology
Origin of colloquial
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In coarse, colloquial prose, translated by Kate Webster, these loosely united vignettes glance upon the lives of villagers who seem cursed by the land.
“We had a colloquial term in the operating room: December Deductible Derby.”
“We had a colloquial term in the operating room: December Deductible Derby,” said Dr. Parcells, noting that patients seeking insurance-covered surgeries like breast augmentations have deductibles in mind.
Though the authenticity of Perpetua’s diary has occasionally been questioned, its vividness, earthy colloquial Latin and wealth of circumstantial detail strongly suggest that these are her words.
Here Gershwin set to music Heyward’s colloquial poetry—lines that Stephen Sondheim called among “the best lyrics written, I think, for the musical stage.”
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
