allocution
/alə(ʊ)ˈkjuːʃən/
allocution means A formal speech, especially one which is regarded as authoritative and forceful. It carries an Arena rating of 1619, earned across 37 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, allocution ranks #1,869 of 17,126 for Most Satisfying to Say, #2,448 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words, #4,463 of 17,138 for Most Incisive Words, #4,532 of 17,131 for Scariest Words.
allocution is pronounced /alə(ʊ)ˈkjuːʃən/.
Why “allocution” is a great word
ALLOCUTION — [Noun] A formal, authoritative address, or the formal statement or right of a convicted defendant or crime victim to speak in court before sentencing. From the Latin allocūtiō, allocūtiōn- (stem of allocūtiō), from allocūtus, past participle of alloquī ("to speak to, address"), from ad- ("to") + loquī ("to speak"). Unlike an oration, crafted for ceremonial eloquence, or a simple statement, a neutral declaration, an allocution is a directed utterance defined by procedural gravity. It is the judge's solemn pronouncement from the bench, the general's stark orders before battle, and the defendant's hushed, final claim to agency—a ritual breath of personhood within the machine of law, where speech becomes the bridge between a life lived and the record that remains.
Etymology
From Latin allocūtiō (“address”).
noun
- A formal speech, especially one which is regarded as authoritative and forceful.e.g.“The Minister of War, in a barrack-square allocution to the officers of the artillery regiment he had been inspecting, had declared the national honour sold to foreigners.” — 1904, Joseph Conrad, chapter 2, in Nostromo:
- The question put to a convicted defendant by a judge after the rendering of the verdict in a trial, in which the defendant is asked whether he or she wishes to make a statement to the court before sentencing; the statement made by a defendant in response to such a question; the legal right of a defendant to make such a statement.
- The legal right of a victim, in some jurisdictions, to make a statement to a court prior to sentencing of a defendant convicted of a crime causing injury to that victim; the actual statement made to a court by a victim.e.g.“As of July, 1985, 19 states permitted victim allocution at the sentencing phase of criminal trials.” — 1989, Karen L. Kennard, “The Victim's Veto: A Way to Increase Victim Impact on Criminal Case Dispositions”, in California Law Review, vol. 77, no. 2, p. 427 n49:
- A pronouncement by a pope to an assembly of church officials concerning a matter of church policy.
- The mode of information dissemination in which media broadcasts are transmitted to multiple receivers with no or very limited capability of a two-way exchange of information.e.g.“Allocution is the dissemination of information by a central unit towards a collectivity of decentral units, the central unit being both the source and the determining actor.” — 1993, I. Th. M. Snellen and Wim B. H. J. van de Donk (eds.), Public Administration in an Information Age, p. 198 (Google preview)
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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