colloquial language
Everyday informal talk
Colloquial language is informal speech and writing—the everyday vocabulary and expressions people use in casual conversation rather than formal contexts.
It includes contractions, slang, and relaxed grammar that would feel out of place in academic papers or legal documents: The essay was rejected for being too colloquial.
Colloquial doesn't mean incorrect, just informal.
- lingoGroup-specific vocabulary
- conversationalRelating to informal dialogue
- vernacularEveryday regional speech
- casualRelaxed and informal
- dialectRegional language variety
chatter · demotic · idiom · argot · figure of speech · slang · neologism · banter · localism · patois · regionalism · local color · catchphrase · everyday · phrasal verb · plain-spoken · plain English · quip
- linguistic recordscorpora, transcripts, recordings, field notes, texts
colloquial languageformal language
Elevated, rule-governed expression
elevated language · high style · official language · formal speech · refined language
colloquial languagetechnical language
Specialized vocabulary of a field
academic discourse · scientific language · legal language · medical terminology · legalese