elocution
el-uh-KYOO-shunnounMeaning the skill of pronouncing words clearly when speaking in public
Memory hook E-LOCU-TION: speaking OUT, clear as a bell. Professor Edwin rings a bell, and Maya repeats the tongue twister until every sound rings out clearly. She is practicing elocution.
Years of elocution lessons gave the actor a clear, ringing voice.
In context In the old one-room schools, elocution was a subject of its own; pupils stood before the class to recite poems slowly, loudly and with every consonant crisp.
Similar articulation, enunciation, delivery, public speaking
From Latin elocutio, “a speaking out,” from eloqui: e (out) + loqui (to speak).