Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

Date: 1200-1300
Language: Late Latin
Origin: lectura 'act of reading', from Latin legere 'to read'

lecture

1 noun
     
lec‧ture1 S3 W3 [countable]
1 a long talk on a particular subject that someone gives to a group of people, especially to students in a university [↪ speech]
lecture on/about
a lecture on medieval art
a series of lectures about the British legal system
give/deliver a lecture
He regularly gives lectures on modern French literature.
go to/attend a lecture
Very few students ever attended his lectures.
2 an act of criticizing someone or warning them about something in a long, serious talk, in a way that they think is unfair or unnecessary
lecture on/about
My father caught me and gave me a long lecture about the dangers of drink.
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

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