illocution.

A communicative act performed through an utterance, such as making a promise, request, warning, or command.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• illocutionary force
• perform an illocution
• an indirect illocution

On the page

The same sentence can carry the illocution of a warning or a prediction, depending on context.

Her polite question performed an indirect illocution: a request to leave.

Usage notes

Primary category: academic / formal / analytical. Lexical Type: Word. Forms: Singular illocution; plural illocutions. Commonness: uncommon (editorial estimate; not a corpus frequency statistic). Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1; numbered fields keep each relevant meaning separate. Research distinction: SEP directly read explicitly uses speech act and illocution synonymously, with contextual force such as command, threat or prediction. Literal sentence meaning alone underdetermines force. MW illocutionary directly read commanding/requesting/warning. MW noun URL 404 is not evidence. Individually useful in research, criticism, methodology or conceptual analysis. Definitions and examples are original; no mood or intensity assigned to neutral analytical concepts. Commonness is an editorial estimate, not a frequency statistic. Writing functions: communicative force in context, what speaking accomplishes beyond literal wording.