colloquy
Americannoun
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colloquies
plural
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a conversational exchange; dialogue.
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a conference.
noun
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a formal conversation or conference
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a literary work in dialogue form
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an informal conference on religious or theological matters
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of colloquy
1555–65; < Latin colloquium colloquium
Explanation
A colloquy is a formal talk, the opposite of a chat, such as the colloquy you have with your boss about a serious matter — far different from how you'll talk to your friends about it afterward. To correctly pronounce colloquy, accent the first syllable: "KOLL uh kwee." The word comes from the Latin prefix com-, meaning "together," and loquium, meaning "speaking." That adds up to "speaking together." You probably recognize loqui, meaning "to speak," in words like locution and colloquial, which also involve speaking.
Vocabulary lists containing colloquy
"The Odyssey" by Homer, Books 8–13
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"Simon's Saga," Vocabulary from Episode 6
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Walden
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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.
See Examples For:
Their colloquy is interrupted when a rampaging animal is heard.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan seemed the most willing to read that colloquy in Pitchford’s favor.
From Slate ● Apr. 10, 2026
The unintended effect, however, is of cramped twin biographies, when what we’re here for is a drawn-out colloquy in a tight space: Lewis’ gentle prodding of a rationalist’s edges versus Freud’s fulminating about God’s existence.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 22, 2023
“When something was wrong, there was a real colloquy between the court and Congress. The court would say, ‘Hey, this doesn’t stand up to scrutiny.’
From New York Times ● Jul. 2, 2022
Plainly skeptical but unwilling to engage in a colloquy with a wheedling Teller, Fermi pleaded that he was too tired from the flight to give him a hearing, much less a commitment.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
Now released publicly, the album radiates companionship, with the guitars — acoustic and electric, picking and sliding — entwined in amiable colloquies.
From New York Times ● Dec. 8, 2022
You hear it deployed in corporate colloquies, political speeches and school prospectuses as if it were a magic wand.
From Washington Post ● Jun. 21, 2021
Otherwise, these colloquies offered as much insight as your average sideline interview, which is to say little.
From Slate ● Feb. 10, 2020
Despite a sense of the historical importance – and members’ efforts to dramatize the hearing with outbursts and impassioned colloquies – the mood was subdued.
From The Guardian ● Dec. 12, 2019
How else could he have given us an authentic version of the long colloquies that were carried on in heaven?
From Bible Romances First Series by G. W. (George William) Foote
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.
