Word.ws English Dictionary

performative utterance

performative utterance noun: a sentence or other linguistic expression which, when expressed in an appropriate context, actually does or accomplishes something.

Noun

performative utterance (plural performative utterances)

  1. A sentence or other linguistic expression which, when expressed in an appropriate context, actually does or accomplishes something.

Forms of performative utterance

pluralperformative utterances

Origin of performative utterance

Coined by British philosopher J. L. Austin (1911–1960).

Questions about performative utterance

What does performative utterance mean?
Performative utterance means a sentence or other linguistic expression which, when expressed in an appropriate context, actually does or accomplishes something.
What part of speech is performative utterance?
Performative utterance is a noun.
What is the plural of performative utterance?
The plural of performative utterance is performative utterances.

Words near performative utterance in the dictionary

  1. performants
  2. performation
  3. performatism
  4. performative
  5. performative authoritarianism
  6. performative utterance
  7. performative utterances
  8. performatively
  9. performativeness
  10. performatives
  11. performativism

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: performative utterance (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “performative utterance.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/performative_utterance. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.