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utterance

utterance

22 4.8
A spoken word or short sound someone makes aloud
  • noun
  • /ˈʌtərəns/
translation icon : enunciado
  • In her speech, she made an utterance about the importance of kindness.
  • utterance position
  • utterance length
  • mean utterance

No laughing, no whispering, no utterance of any kind.

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Examples

  • My thoughts would compel utterance, and there was no audience but the Almighty.

  • No laughing, no whispering, no utterance of any kind.

  • I am the utterance of my name.

  • Any utterance of the honorable member whom we have just heard must command our respect and attention.

  • You should make your deeds correspond to your frequent utterance of the desire for peace.

    Academic text (1990)
  • The act of communication, the unrepeatable instance of utterance, is the distinctive feature of canto popular.

    Academic text (1991)
  • And all this, the general and the specific, the national and the personal, all this, he knows, and feels, and summons, somehow, however faintly, with the utterance of a single sound.

  • In sociolinguistics, utterances are thought to communicate more than just dictionary meanings.

    Academic text (2013)
  • We spoke a double-tiered language, our innocent public utterance spiked with provocative private allusions.

    Fiction book (1992)
  • During the debate, his every utterance was carefully analyzed by the audience.

Synonyms

speech
vsutterance
655 1.0

The ability to use words with your voice to show thoughts or feelings

refers to an individual spoken act rather than the general ability to speak
vocalization
vsutterance
  • Specialized
6 5.2

A sound a person or animal makes with the voice to communicate

is a linguistic spoken expression rather than mere physical sound production
spoken word
vsutterance
2 2.6

Something you say aloud rather than write or think

includes whole spoken statements or sounds not only single units
speech act
vsutterance
  • Specialized
1 7.4

Words that you say to do something, like asking or promising

is a simple spoken expression not defined by intention or effect
voicing
vsutterance
3.9

To make sounds with your mouth and throat when speaking, singing, or acting as a character

focuses on the expressed spoken content rather than voice technique

Antonyms

660 2.0

A period with no sound or speech

45 1.0

A calm time with little or no sound

How Long

lecture
365 3.1
speech
  • Formal
1.8
utterance
22 4.8
sentence
499 1.0
word
1.0

Surface Forms

utterance singular
utterances plural

Morphology

utterance = utter (transparent) = utter + ance

The noun 'utterance' is transparently derived from the verb 'utter' with the suffix '-ance' indicating an action or process.

Etymology

Utterance comes from the old verb utter, which is related to the common word out and originally meant 'to put out'. So an utterance is something you 'put out' with your voice — a spoken word or statement.