HOW TO PRONOUNCE
colloquial
/kəˈloʊkwiəl/
Press play to hear how to pronounce colloquial.
American Pronunciation Guide · 0:31
Watch on YouTube ↗
Watch on YouTube ↗
LISTEN FOR THIS
Give “lo” the strongest beat.
The qu represents k followed by w, leading through a lighter ee into uh before the final l.
4 syllables · Stress on syllable 2
TRY SAYING
“The dialogue uses colloquial language.”
APG practice sentence · CC BY-SA 4.0
CMU Pronouncing Dictionary ↗What does colloquial mean?
adjective
- Characteristic of familiar conversation, of common parlance; informal.
- Of or pertaining to a conversation; conversational or chatty.
noun
- A colloquial word or phrase, colloquialism.
Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0
IPA pronunciation
/kəˈloʊkwiəl/
Pronunciation used in the listening tip.
CMU Pronouncing Dictionary ↗Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.
In the pages of books
See this word in context.
The same idea gave rise to the "ours mal léché" of French, and our own colloquial expression "an ill-licked cub."
The design of this machine follows very closely the lines of a bird in flight--hence its colloquial description, "Taube," or "dove."
More book examples (3)
He took great pains in correcting my Spanish, and supplying me with colloquial phrases, and common terms and exclamations in speaking.
Three hours afterwards, on our return by the same path, a voice greeted using a colloquial tone as we passed “Maracaná!”
Mrs. Andrews’ only acquaintance with the word “genius” was derived from the colloquial fashion of calling any eccentric individual “a queer genius.”