The word lecture is used both to designate a genre of performance and a literary genre written text, and is used in each case in a broader and narrower sense.

If the word lecture is used to describe a genre of presentation, it refers in the broadest sense to a orally presented one-sided communication of one’s own thoughts in coherent form as prose, which is addressed to an audience consisting of a plurality of listeners. In this sense, the word is largely used synonymously with the word speech.

A lecture in the sense of a performance genre is an orally presented one-sided communication of one’s own thoughts in coherent form, which aims at the comprehensive presentation of factual information on a precisely defined topic, is conceived as prose and is addressed to an audience of a plurality of listeners.

Concerning the literary genre described by the word lecture, the following definition can be used: the word lecture is used to describe a work which is a written prose text which serves as the basis for an oral, one-sided, linguistic communication of one’s own thoughts in coherent form to an audience of a plurality of listeners.

A lecture in the sense of a literary genre refers to a written text in the form of a prose, which serves as the basis for a verbally presented, one-sided, linguistic communication of one’s own thoughts in a coherent form, which deals with the comprehensive presentation of factual information on a precisely defined subject and is directed at an audience of a plurality of listeners.

The person who addresses an audience with an oral presentation is referred to as a lecturer. The terms speaker or keynote speaker are also used.