DictionaryAI

lecture

LEK-chur/ˈlɛk.t͡ʃɚ/UKLEK-chuh/ˈlɛk.t͡ʃə/

Plurallectures

Verblectures, lecturing, lectured

6 meanings of lecture

Practice

  1. 1
    nouncountable
    A spoken lesson or talk on a subject, usually delivered to a group.

    Her opening lecture covered the history of jazz.

    Hundreds of students attended the visiting scholar's lecture on climate policy.

    Similartalk, speech, address, lesson, presentation

    Note

    Behind the word stands Medieval Latin lectura, "reading", from legō, "I read, I recite". The name looks back to reading aloud and reciting, not to free talk. The verb it pairs with is deliver: a professor delivers a lecture. The American novelist Winston Churchill's The Celebrity (1897) turns that phrase against dull fiction, comparing stories to "a well-delivered stereopticon lecture", polished but lifeless.

  2. 2
    nouncountable
    A scolding or berating, especially a lengthy one delivered in a stern or angry manner.

    After the broken vase, the children received a stern lecture about being careful.

    His coach delivered a furious lecture in the locker room at halftime.

    Similarscolding, reprimand, rebuke, sermon, tirade

  3. 3
    verbtransitive or intransitive
    To teach someone by giving a speech on a particular topic.

    He lectures on medieval history at the university.

    They invited her to lecture about marine biology.

    Similarteach, speak, talk

    Note

    The teaching verb works with or without an object, and its commonest patterns run through prepositions. One lectures on or about a subject and lectures to an audience, like the professor who lectured to two classes this morning. With a person as direct object, the verb leans toward the scolding sense, so "lecture to students" is safer when only teaching is meant.

  4. 4
    verbtransitive
    To preach at, berate, or scold someone, often at length.

    He loves to lecture his children about the value of hard work.

    The manager lectured the staff for missing deadlines.

    Similarscold, berate, reprimand, harangue, rebuke

    Oppositepraise, commend

    Note

    The scolding verb carries a charge of moral superiority as well as length. Gary Younge, writing in The Guardian in 2013, says the west had "lectured the Arab world about democracy." The sting is that the lecturer does not practice what is preached. The verb takes a direct object and usually an about-phrase for the topic, as in lecturing someone about curfews or manners.

  5. 5
    nouncountable
    A college or university class that mainly consists of a regularly held lecture given to students.

    She has three lectures and two seminars on her schedule this semester.

    Attendance at the introductory biology lecture is mandatory all term.

    Similarclass, lesson

    Note

    Here lecture names a timetabled class rather than a single talk, and it can behave like class or school: "We will not have lecture tomorrow" drops the article entirely. That bare use marks it as the routine slot on a schedule. It also works freely as a modifier, as in lecture notes, the material a student carries away from the course.

Less common meaning

  1. 6
    nounobsolete
    The act of reading something written; an obsolete sense of the word.
    Note

    English has lost this sense, though it stays closest to the Latin "reading" traced under the spoken-lesson sense. It takes an of-phrase naming the text, as in the lecture of Holy Scripture. A modern reader would hear a talk about Scripture instead, so keep it for historical pastiche, where the old-fashioned ring is the point.

Practice

Can you tell the meanings of lecture apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.

Origin

It comes through Middle English from Medieval or Late Latin lectura ("reading"), which derives from Latin lectus, the past participle of legō ("I read, I recite").