utterance
noun
Simple meaning
An instance of that act or process: usually, something spoken.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
uhteruhnsSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈʌtɚəns
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
An instance of that act or process: especially, something spoken (e.g., syllables, words, phrases); (especially linguistics) any such thing either spoken or written.
An act of, or the process of, uttering.
The ability to speak.
A manner of speaking.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient
- Frequency
- Uncommon
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: An instance of that act or process: especially, something spoken (e.g., syllables, words, phrases); (especially linguistics) any such thing either spoken or written.
Used this way, utterance is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a grammar or language-study use: it describes how language works, so it appears in teaching and reference writing.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Academic writing
- Education/classroom
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
Share your sentence
Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Completely and without qualification.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- tensenoun
- syntacticadjective
- mantranoun
- grammaticaladjective
- syllablenoun
Ask Vocabaura
Understand the word your way.
What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
Use it yourself
Knowing “utterance” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.
Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.