utterance

¹

[uht-er-uhns]

noun

1. an act of uttering; utter; uttering; vocal expression.

2. manner of speaking; power of speaking.

   His very utterance was spellbinding.

3. something uttered; utter; a word or words uttered; utter; a cry, animal's call, or the like.

4. Linguistics.,  any speech sequence consisting of one or more words and preceded and followed by silence: it may be coextensive with a sentence.

5. Obsolete.,  a public sale of goods.

utterance

²

[uht-er-uhns]

noun

Archaic.

1. the utmost extremity, especially death.

utterance

¹

/ ˈʌtərəns /

noun

1. something uttered, such as a statement

2. the act or power of uttering or the ability to utter

3. logic philosophy an element of spoken language, esp a sentence Compare inscription

utterance

²

/ ˈʌtərəns /

noun

1. archaic,  the bitter end (esp in the phrase to the utterance )

Word History and Origins

Origin of utterance¹

late Middle English word dating back to 1400–50; utter ¹, -ance

Origin of utterance²

1350–1400; Middle English < Old French outrance, oultrance, equivalent to oultr ( er ) to pass beyond (< Latin ultrā beyond) + -ance -ance

Word History and Origins

Origin of utterance¹

C13: from Old French oultrance, from oultrer to carry to excess, from Latin ultrā beyond

Example Sentences

"When an age ends and the soul of a nation finds utterance. Tonight we step out from the old to the new," Mamdani continued.

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Their every utterance was akin to a 'is this all you've got?' message to their visitors.

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How ever this plays out, he’s not saying anything now, which was obvious when he answered the first question at his media day news conference with dodgy utterances.

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The former Liverpool and Manchester City forward showed with his comments before and after the Kazakhstan game that we perhaps should not take each one of his public utterances at face value.

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Before even the utterance of a word, Kaamilah Thomas spoke for herself.

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Related Words

• assertion 
• pronouncement