colloquial

adjective col·lo·qui·al \ kə-ˈlō-kwē-əl \

|Updated on: 24 Jun 2018

Examples: colloquial in a Sentence

Editor's Note: Did You Know?

Definition of colloquial

1 a : used in or characteristic of familiar and informal conversation

In colloquial English, "kind of" is often used for "somewhat" or "rather."

; also : unacceptably informal

b : using conversational style

a colloquial writer

2 : of or relating to conversation : conversational

colloquial expressions

—

colloquial

noun

—

colloquiality

play \kə-ˌlō-kwē-ˈa-lə-tē\ noun

—

colloquially

play \kə-ˈlō-kwē-ə-lē\ adverb

See colloquial defined for English-language learners

See colloquial defined for kids

colloquial was our Word of the Day on 08/26/2011. Hear the podcast!

Examples of colloquial in a Sentence

But I think part of this pickle that we're in—if I may be colloquial, even though I'm not running for office—is that we've lost their sense of responsibility. —Sarah Vowell, Entertainment Weekly, 24 Oct. 2008
Langston was the merriest and the most colloquial of them all. "Best party I've ever been given!" he said. —Gwendolyn Brooks, Booklist, 15 Oct. 1993
Mr. Salisbury's firsthand account is written in a fast-paced, chaotic and colloquial style, which often feels confused and hastily set down. —Susan Shapiro, New York Times Book Review, 10 Sept. 1989
Although in the circle of his friends, where he might be unreserved with safety, he took a free share in conversation, his colloquial talents were not above mediocrity, possessing neither copiousness of ideas, nor fluency of words. —Thomas Jefferson, letter, 2 Jan. 1814
the new coworker's rudeness soon began—to use a colloquial expression—to rub me the wrong way
a colloquial essay on what makes a marriage successful

Recent Examples of colloquial from the Web

Gulls — there is no single bird called a seagull, which is a colloquial term applied to several types of coastal gulls — were once primarily migratory winter visitors to the state.

— billy baker, BostonGlobe.com, "The gull next door: Some Gloucester residents can’t stand all the seabirds," 19 June 2018
Divorce remained exceedingly rare until the first liberalizing laws of the nineteenth century; breaking up in the more colloquial sense is not even a century old.

— jess bergman, The New Republic, "The Birth of Breakups," 18 June 2018
Collages of women greet the viewer with piercing eyes; with their hair manipulated beyond the colloquial definition of natural, the women’s faces take center stage.

— hannah giorgis, The Atlantic, "Lorna Simpson Maps the Complex Galaxies of Black Women’s Hair," 10 June 2018
Digital is different than print, of course, including a more colloquial feel in language.

— david zurawik, baltimoresun.com, "New York Times podcast takes hard-eyed look at Baltimore's police problems," 5 June 2018
This was met by a silence indicating a lack of understanding of colloquial Mexican Spanish.

— marie myung-ok lee, Longreads, "Politics and Prose," 18 May 2018
Anyone who has ever worked in a cannery knows that 'mug up' is a colloquial term for coffee break.

— laine welch, Anchorage Daily News, "Funding for Alaska’s commercial fisheries division in good shape, with $300K going to chinook project," 29 Apr. 2018
The first is in a colloquial sense focused on ethics and morality.

— chris cillizza, CNN, "Leaking 101: Is James Comey a leaking liar?," 27 Apr. 2018
Few would imagine any equivalence between this kind of fear and the horribly colloquial sense terror has taken on in our world.

— j.j. gould, The New Republic, "The Opposite of Dread," 19 Apr. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'colloquial.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

The noun colloquy was first used in English to refer to a conversation or dialogue, and when the adjective colloquial was formed from colloquy it had a similar focus. Over time, however, colloquial developed a more specific meaning related to language that is most suited to informal conversation - and it ultimately garnered an additional, disparaging implication of a style that seems too informal for a situation. Colloquy and colloquial trace back to the Latin verb colloqui, meaning "to converse." Colloqui in turn was formed by combining the prefix com- and loqui, "to speak." Other conversational descendants of loqui in English include "circumlocution," eloquent, loquacious, soliloquy, and ventriloquism.