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
I was just thinking about that colloquy he had at his confirmation.
From Slate ● May 9, 2025
Some of his dialogue scenes — including a riveting colloquy between the questing Marianne and the questioning bishop — have the shape, rhythm and sorrowful wit of a Sondheim song.
From New York Times ● Oct. 22, 2023
The opening exchange is treated as cross-examination masquerading as comradely colloquy.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2023
Now then, their colloquy at an end, they went their ways—Athena toward illustrious Lakedaimon far over sea, to join Odysseus’ son.
From "The Odyssey" by Homer
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
The pacing of this domestic reckoning, divided into a series of heated colloquies between Nora and the loved ones she left behind, is breathless.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 15, 2019
Even there I used to wonder whether the Southerners had not given secret-service money to the alligators who occasionally stuck their knobby noses above the flood to scent our colloquies.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 90, April, 1865 by Various
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.
