utterance

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Homer has a great and deep thought to utter, but his utterance is and must be mythical.

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Definitions (17)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (5)

  1. noun The act of uttering; vocal expression.
  2. noun The power of speaking; speech: as long as I have utterance.
  3. noun A manner of speaking: argued with forceful utterance.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (9)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

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Examples (50)

  • That's why his utterance was abrupt, his answers to people startlingly brusque and often not forthcoming at all It happens to the most resolute of men to find himself at grips not only with unknown forces, but with a well-known force the real might of which he had not understood. —  Chance A Tale in Two Parts
  • His eyes are rather glassy and his utterance is a little thick. —  The 'Mind the Paint' Girl A Comedy in Four Acts
  • The bullets whizzed by with their peculiar noise, sounding quite close, but probably nowhere near the riders--those who fired judging in the darkness quite by sound Let's keep on at a walk," whispered West; but, low as his utterance was, the sound reached an enemy's ears Mind what you're about!" —  A Dash from Diamond City
  • It must be said, however, that some syllables, and even some vowels, lend themselves more easily than others to that prolonged utterance which is essential to the production of wide intervals and the perfectness of the vanishing movement The equable concrete is the natural, simple mode of utterance; but under the influence of interest, excitement, passion, and so on, the utterance of the concrete may be greatly varied from this by means of stress_, or force applied to some part or to all of its extent. —  The Ontario Readers: The High School Reader, 1886
  • But to me this utterance was the last straw, breaking down every restraint, and leaving me hot, and furious with anger. —  The Devil's Own A Romance of the Black Hawk War
 

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

speech ·  eloquence ·  gesture ·  reply ·  phrase ·  exclamation ·  declaration ·  accent ·  discourse ·  remark ·  revelation ·  statement

Used in the same contextWord Family

utterance:   utterances
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old French outrance, from outrer, to go beyond limits, from Vulgar Latin *ultrāre, from Latin ultrā, beyond; see al-1 in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from utter + -ance.
  2. An expanded form, due to confusion with utter, uttermost, of *uttrance, uttrance, earlier outrance; see outrance,
 

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/ˈətərəns/
by American Heritage
by Lee Davis-Thalbourne

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