illocutionary
adjective
illocutionary is spelled I-L-L-O-C-U-T-I-O-N-A-R-Y: 13 letters. It appears about once in every 44 million words in written English, the 204,233rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an adjective, illocutionary means “Of, pertaining to, or deriving from illocution, the performance of acts by speaking” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in illocutionary?
| Letters | 13: I-L-L-O-C-U-T-I-O-N-A-R-Y |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 44 million words; the 204,233rd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How common is illocutionary?
Illocutionary appears about once in every 44 million words in written English, the 204,233rd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
What does illocutionary mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Of, pertaining to, or deriving from illocution, the performance of acts by speaking.
"I pronounce you man and wife" is a descriptive statement, but also has illocutionary force.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Illocutionary in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense of, pertaining to, or derived from illocution:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | illocutoire |
| German | illokutionär |
| Portuguese | ilocucionário, ilocucional, ilocutivo |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does illocutionary come from?
From illocution + -ary.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).