Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Characteristic of or appropriate to the spoken language or to writing that seeks the effect of speech; informal.
  • adjective Relating to conversation; conversational.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Pertaining to conversation; conversational.
  • Peculiar or appropriate to the language of common or familiar conversation; belonging to ordinary, every-day speech: often especially applied to common words and phrases which are not admissible in elegant or formal speech.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Pertaining to, or used in, conversation, esp. common and familiar conversation; conversational; hence, unstudied; informal.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective linguistics Denoting a manner of speaking or writing that is characteristic of familiar conversation; informal.
  • adjective Of or pertaining to a conversation; conversational or chatty.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective characteristic of informal spoken language or conversation

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[From colloquy.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

1751, from earlier term colloquy (a conversation), from Latin colloquium (conference, conversation), from con- (together) + loqui (speak).

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Examples

Comments

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  • This word is pleasing to the eyes but its rhythm is a little strange for my ears.

    March 14, 2008

  • The scientific names of mushrooms are often used, as they give rise to less confusion than colloquial names (nama sehari-hari).

    January 24, 2011

  • they are constantly able to have sex biologically not just colloquially

    January 29, 2018