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lecture

 - 3 dictionary results
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lec⋅ture

  [lek-cher] noun, verb, -tured, -tur⋅ing.
Use lecture in a Sentence
–noun
1. a speech read or delivered before an audience or class, esp. for instruction or to set forth some subject: a lecture on Picasso's paintings.
2. a speech of warning or reproof as to conduct; a long, tedious reprimand.
–verb (used without object)
3. to give a lecture or series of lectures: He spent the year lecturing to various student groups.
–verb (used with object)
4. to deliver a lecture to or before; instruct by lectures.
5. to rebuke or reprimand at some length: He lectured the child regularly but with little effect.
Origin:
1375–1425; late ME < ML lēctūra a reading. See lection, -ure

Synonyms:
1. address, talk, paper, oratim, discourse. 4. address, teach. 5. admonish; hector.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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College Speakers
National agency providing educational speakers to colleges.
www.campuspeak.com
lec·ture   (lěk'chər)   
n.  

  1. An exposition of a given subject delivered before an audience or a class, as for the purpose of instruction.

  2. An earnest admonition or reproof; a reprimand.

v.   lec·tured, lec·tur·ing, lec·tures

v.   intr.
To deliver a lecture or series of lectures.
v.   tr.

  1. To deliver a lecture to (a class or an audience).

  2. To admonish or reprove earnestly, often at length: always lecturing me about my manners.


[Middle English, a reading, from Old French, from Medieval Latin lēctūra, from Latin lēctus, past participle of legere, to read; see leg- in Indo-European roots.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Word Origin & History

lecture  (n.)
1398, "action of reading, that which is read," from M.L. lectura "a reading, lecture," from L. lectus, pp. of legere "to read," originally "to gather, collect, pick out, choose" (cf. election), from PIE *leg- "to pick together, gather, collect" (cf. Gk. legein "to say, tell, speak, declare," originally, in Homer, "to pick out, select, collect, enumerate;" lexis "speech, diction;" logos "word, speech, thought, account;" L. lignum "wood, firewood," lit. “that which is gathered”). To read is to "pick out words." Meaning "action of reading (a lesson) aloud" is from 1526. That of "a discourse on a given subject before an audience for purposes of instruction" is from 1536. The verb is attested from 1590.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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