# colloquial

Pronunciation: say "kuh-LOH-kwee-uhl" US /kəˈloʊ.kwi.əl/, UK /kəˈləʊ.kwɪəl/

## Adjective

1. Typical of the familiar language of everyday conversation rather than of formal speech or writing.
   - Simple: Like the relaxed language people use when they talk every day, not formal.
   - _The novel's dialogue is deliberately colloquial, full of slang and half-finished sentences._
   - _The new translation is more colloquial than the old one, so the characters finally sound like real teenagers._

## Other meanings

- (adjective) Relating to conversation, or having the easy, chatty quality of conversation.
- (noun) A word or phrase that belongs to familiar everyday conversation rather than to formal language.

## Origin

Latin colloquium ("conference, conversation"), from con- ("together") and loquor ("to speak"), gave the earlier English word colloquy ("a conversation"). Adding -al to it produced colloquial, recorded from 1751.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/colloquial (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).