indirect discourse: Meaning and Definition of

in'direct dis'course

Pronunciation: [key]
  1. discourse consisting not of an exact quotation of a speaker's words but of a version transformed from them for grammatical inclusion in a larger sentence. He said he was hungry is an example of indirect discourse. Cf. direct discourse.
Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Copyright © 1997, by Random House, Inc., on Infoplease.