utterance
An utterance is when someone says or expresses something, like a sentence or phrase. It can also be a single word that means a lot.
When we talk about an utterance, we usually mean the words themselves rather than what's being said. For example, you might hear a politician make a great speech, and people will say it was a memorable utterance. The focus is on what was spoken, not the importance of the message. Utterances can be clever phrases or just plain old statements that convey an idea or feeling. Sometimes people use the word in law or linguistics to talk about a single instance of language being used in a particular way.
How common is "utterance"?
It appears most frequently in academic texts and less often in other writings.
noun
An act of, or the process of, uttering.
Example: July 1857, The Imagination in Mathematics", in The North American Review Mathematics and Poetry are … the utterance of the same power of imagination, only that in the one case it is addressed to the head, in the other, to the heart.
Real examples of "utterance" in context
