viva voce
- adverb
- /ˈvaɪvə ˈvoʊsi/
- UK
:
de viva voz
- During the debate, the candidates presented their arguments viva voce, allowing the audience to hear their opinions directly.
Examples
-
In the latter case, the summons was to come to Rome to explain his views viva voce on the Eucharist and the mystery of Christ's resurrection from the dead, accompanied by another theologian as adviser.
Academic text (2015) -
The professor requested that the students respond viva voce during the seminar to foster a more engaging discussion.
-
For the final assessment, each student had to defend their thesis viva voce before a panel of experts.
Synonyms
4
3.5
People tell others instead of writing
Spoken rather than written
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
viva + voce
The components point to a spoken/oral sense—'viva' relates to an oral examination and 'voce' (Latin/Italian for 'voice') signals speech—so the overall meaning is partially inferable as an oral exam. However, the phrase is a formal Latin borrowing and 'voce' is not a standard English word, so a typical B1 learner who only knows the individual English items may still fail to predict the exact academic sense without prior exposure.
Etymology
Viva voce comes from two Latin words, viva ('living') and voce ('voice'). The picture is of a living voice speaking out loud, so the phrase now means 'orally' or 'by word of mouth'.