locution

Noun

locution (countable and uncountable, plural locutions)

1. A phrase or expression peculiar to or characteristic of a given person or group of people.
   • The television show host is widely recognized for his all-too-common locutions.
   • Another way fathers impact sons is that sons, once their voices have changed in puberty, invariably answer the telephone with the same locutions and intonations of their fathers.1996, David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest […], Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN
2. The use of a word or phrase in an unusual or specialized way.
   • So it cannot be supposed that promisings differ from other word-givings in that a word-giver makes a promise only if he or she uses the locution "I promise".1992, Judith Jarvis Thomson, The Realm of Rights, page 299
3. Style of discourse or usage, or any particular utterance in such style.
   • informal locutions
4. A supernatural revelation where a religious figure, statue or icon speaks, usually to a saint.