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# utterance

«utterance» in Mova's school dictionary: **something that someone says: a word, a phrase or a…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

noun (an utterance, utterances); verb utter (utter, utters, uttered, uttering)

### meaning for a pupil

1) (formal) An utterance is something that someone says: a word, a phrase or a sentence spoken aloud. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/utterance/#m1)

2) (formal) Utterance is the act of saying something aloud: give utterance to your feelings. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/utterance/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

A formal word in language study (linguistics) and exams: each thing a person says in a conversation is an utterance. In stories, a character's last utterance or a strange utterance. Plain words: words, what someone said.

### examples

- The baby's first utterance was «Mama». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/utterance/#x1)
- Every utterance in the play was written down. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/utterance/#x2)
- Linguists record people's utterances to study language. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/utterance/#x3)
- His only utterance was a quiet «thank you». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/utterance/#x4)
- She gave utterance to her anger. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/utterance/#x5)
- Each line in the conversation is one utterance. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/utterance/#x6)
- The Savannah negro here gave utterance to a loud, contemptuous laugh, and began to fumble somewhat ostentatiously with a big brass watch-chain. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/utterance/#x7)

### note

Formal; in speech say «what she said». Use «an utterance» (vowel sound). From the verb «utter» (to say). The adjective «utter» means complete (utter nonsense) — a different word.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «utterance» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/U/utterance/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.