elocution - Wiktionary, the free dictionary
English
Noun
elocution (countable and uncountable, plural elocutions)
- The art of speaking, especially public speaking, with expert control of gesture and voice, diction (articulation and word choice), and usage.
- ✤ *perfect elocution *
- ✤ * elocution training*
- ✤ *study elocution *
- ✤ She took elocution lessons to improve her public speaking.
- ✤ His elocution was precise and clear.
- ✤ [Editor David W. Blight said:] Finally, Bingham saw the early American republic as a new political beginning for humankind, and his more than one million schoolbooks sold across the land were designed to produce republican citizens. The Columbian Orator was an elocution manual as well as a reader for school children in the new republic.1
Etymology
From Middle English elocucioun, ellocucioun, from Late Latin ēlocutiōnem. Doublet of elocutio.
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ɛləˈkjuːʃən/
- Audio (Southern England): 🔊
Printed 2026-09-04.
(echo:: @ ⌗)
Footnotes
-
1997 [1797], David W. Blight, “Editor’s Introduction: The Peculiar Dialogue Between Caleb Bingham and Frederick Douglass”, in Caleb Bingham, edited by David W. Blight, The Columbian Orator, Bicentennial Edition (1997 republishing), New York University Press, →ISBN: ↩