Lecture

How to spell lecture

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce lecture

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does lecture mean?

1. nounA formal spoken presentation on a subject, given to an audience or class.
2. nounA long, stern talking-to delivered to correct someone's behaviour.
3. verbTo deliver a formal talk, or to reprimand someone at length.

Lecture in a sentence

• noun

  The visiting professor delivered a lecture on Roman history.

• noun

  His father gave him a stern lecture about coming home so late.

• verb

  He was hired to lecture on economics at the local college.

• noun

  She missed the morning lecture because her train was delayed.

• noun

  She endured a long lecture from her boss about missed deadlines.

• verb

  She does not need anyone to lecture her about saving money.

Where does lecture come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb legere, which meant 'to read' but earlier 'to gather' or 'to choose'; its past participle was lectus, and from that came the Medieval Latin noun lectura, meaning 'a reading'. In the universities of the Middle Ages a lectura was literally the act of reading a text aloud to students, since books were scarce and a master would read and explain a manuscript while pupils listened. English took the word in the late 1300s, at first for that reading or discourse, and only later did it broaden to the modern sense of any formal spoken teaching and, less happily, to a scolding talk. The same legere root sits inside familiar relatives such as 'legible', 'lecture', and 'lectern', the very stand the reader stood at. Remembering that the heart of the word is lect, the 'reading' part, helps explain the spelling, which keeps the c before the t rather than the softer sound the ear might expect.

How the word is built

• lect (from Latin legere/lectus: to read, to gather)
• -ure (noun suffix denoting an act or process)