1. A formal speech or address, especially one that contains an authoritative statement on a subject or an exhortation to someone: "Even before he became the 16th President of United States, Abraham Lincoln was well known for his clear and very concise style of allocution."
2. A traditional formal question directed by a court to a defendant convicted of a felony before sentencing, asking whether or not the defendant has anything to say regarding why the sentence should not be pronounced against him or her: "I believe that to have interfered as I have done, as I have freely admitted I have done, in behalf of God's despised poor, I did no wrong, but right. Now, if this court should deem it necessary that I should forfeit my life for the furtherance of the ends of justice . . . I say let it be done."

So went the court room allocution of John Brown, American hero to the slaves.