perlocution.

An effect produced through an utterance, such as persuading, alarming, or reassuring a listener.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• an intended perlocution
• successful perlocution
• perlocution and illocution

On the page

The request's illocution was clear, but its intended perlocution—getting the door closed—failed.

The chapter treats convincing the audience as a perlocution of the speech.

Usage notes

Primary category: academic / formal / analytical. Lexical Type: Word. Forms: Countable or uncountable by context; countable singular perlocution; plural perlocutions. Commonness: uncommon (editorial estimate; not a corpus frequency statistic). Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1; numbered fields keep each relevant meaning separate. Research distinction: MW target directly read perlocutionary entry with explicitly listed perlocution noun and plural -s: acts performed upon listeners via an utterance. SEP directly read nouns perlocutions as characteristic effects/aims, distinguish urging (illocution) from persuading (perlocution). Intention and successful effect are distinguished. 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: consequences of utterances, intended versus achieved listener responses.