Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use colloquial in a sentence

22 example sentences · adjective, noun

Colloquial means characteristic of familiar conversation, of common parlance; informal. Example: “You're using too many colloquial words in this cover letter: I suggest changing "I picked up loads of cool skills" to "I acquired many positive abilities"”

Examples of colloquial by meaning

adjectiveCharacteristic of familiar conversation, of common parlance; informal.

  • You're using too many colloquial words in this cover letter: I suggest changing "I picked up loads of cool skills" to "I acquired many positive abilities"
  • The colloquial, and at times sarcastic, tone of her books makes her popular with teenagers.
  • If you know what it means to be a “fidlet” going for a “jolly” in your “doo”, then you are part of an exclusive club that speaks colloquial Antarctic English.2024 June 20, Eva Corlett, “Fidlets, fingies and riding a doo: study sheds light on Antarctic English slang”, in The Guardian

More sentences with colloquial

  • This normative expectation is perhaps best captured in the popular colloquial phrase: “Pics or it didn't happen.”2016, Jan E. Stets, Richard T. Serpe, New Directions in Identity Theory and Research, page 147. From the entry pics or it didn't happen
  • Here we categorize Blackfoot variations in three types: regional, generational and colloquial.2015, Mizuki Miyashita, Annabelle Chatsis, “Respecting Dialectical Variations in a Blackfoot Language Class”, in Honoring Our Elders…. From the entry Aapatohsipikani
  • Sugarbag is a widely used colloquial Aboriginal-English name for the honey from native bees.2004, Vic Cherikoff, Dining Downunder: The Cook Book, page 157. From the entry sugarbag
  • By their juxtaposition with perfectly colloquial idioms, these words present the erroneous appearance of neologism.2003, Alan Singer, Aesthetic Reason: Artworks and the Deliberative Ethos, University Park, P.A.: The Pennsylvania State University Press…. From the entry pseudoneologism
  • The colloquial form of the city’s name thus entered the language as a contemptuous epithet.2002, Rachel Crawford, Poetry, enclosure, and the vernacular landscape, 1700–1830, Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, page 160. From the entry brummagem
  • The ideal antiquarist, while analyzing the text, should rule out the use of modern colloquial language.1997, Philosophia Mathematica, pages 23, 29. From the entry antiquarist
  • That the OED was forced to define one register, slang, in terms of another, colloquial, points up the problem.2016, Jonathon Green, Slang: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, page 12. From the entry point up
  • The apposition in the title has been read as indicating that ‘Hobson-Jobson’ is equivalent to ‘colloquial Anglo-Indian words and phrases’.2014, James Lambert, “A Much Tortured Expression: A New Look At `Hobson-Jobson'”, in International Journal of Lexicography, volume 27…. From the entry apposition
  • Such activities earned their own colloquial name "karma whoring."2012, Robert E. Kraut, Paul Resnick, Sara Kiesler, Building Successful Online Communities, page 57. From the entry karma whore
  • Of course, local colloquial Chinese was for everybody the everyday language, as all of them were undivided sinophones.2006, Françoise Aubin, “Islam on the wings of nationalism: the case of Muslim intellectuals in Republican China”, in Stéphane A.…. From the entry sinophone
  • To the comic and the colloquial of Chaucer's art Mr.1933 October 21, Robert Kilburn Root, “Chaucer Modernized”, in Henry Seidel Canby, editor, The Saturday Review of Literature, volume X…. From the entry eftsoonery
  • Ms Watkeys also says new language is evolving, such as words like ADHDer and AuDHDer in colloquial use (AuDHD being dual-diagnosis autistic and ADHD).[2023 June 3, Maia Hall, “Is awarding COVID medals a form of gaslighting? Take part in the debate”, in New Zealand Doctor. From the entry ADHDer
  • Indeed, the power inherent in the labels attributed to them has repeatedly transformed these terms from allegedly scientific ones into colloquial derisives.2017, Bogdadn Lesnik, Countering Discrimination in Social Work. From the entry derisive
  • Jaffy has become a colloquial term – a lot of people use it regardless of whether the first years frustrated them or not.2013, Maddy White, LIFE AS A “JAFFY” – MY FIRST DAY AT UNI. From the entry jaffy
  • You can call them nonstandard, colloquial, informal, casual, slangy, or even signs of the apocalypse, but there's no reason to deny them wordhood.2009, Ben Zimmer, Mailbag Friday: "Texted". From the entry wordhood
  • Bombogenesis: A colloquial term for sudden, extremely rapid almost explosive intensification of low pressure systems just off the Atlantic Coast of the United States.2000 February 15, “Weather word”, in Chicago Tribune, page 10. From the entry bombogenesis
  • Many NigE slang expressions have a short life, while others have more staying power, and some, like gist, described earlier, are perhaps colloquial rather than slang.[2019, David Jowitt, “Lexis and discourse”, in Nigerian English, Walter de Gruyter, →ISBN, page 137. From the entry fashy
  • They use many more colloquial words which could be the result of their lower levels of foreign language anxiety, less inhibition, and less fear of punishment.2004, Jean-Marc Dewaele, “Individual Differences in the Use of Colloquial Vocabulary: The Effects of Sociobiographical and Psychological…. From the entry ambivert
  • Colloquial Malay also uses yang as a relativizer and (pro)nominalizer, but also accepts punya as a pronominalizer (e.g. (Yang) mahal punya untuk abang “The expensive one is for elder brother”).2004, Olga Fischer, Up and down the Cline: The Nature of Grammaticalization, page 165. From the entry pronominalizer

Meaning of colloquial

  1. adjective Characteristic of familiar conversation, of common parlance; informal.
  2. adjective Of or pertaining to a conversation; conversational or chatty.
  3. noun A colloquial word or phrase, colloquialism.

Full definition of colloquial

Questions about colloquial in a sentence

How do you use colloquial in a sentence?
Colloquial is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “You're using too many colloquial words in this cover letter: I suggest changing "I picked up loads of cool skills" to "I acquired many positive abilities"”
What is a short sentence with colloquial?
“Such activities earned their own colloquial name "karma whoring."”
What does colloquial mean?
Colloquial means characteristic of familiar conversation, of common parlance; informal.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: colloquial (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use colloquial in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/colloquial. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.