speak
verbEtymology
From Middle English speke, speken (“to speak”), from Old English specan (“to speak”). This is usually taken to be an irregular alteration of earlier sprecan, spreocan (“to speak”), from Proto-West Germanic *sprekan, from Proto-Germanic *sprekaną (“to speak, make a sound”), from Proto-Indo-European *spreg- (“to make a sound, utter, speak”). Finding this proposed loss of r from the stable cluster spr unparalleled, Hill instead sets up a different root, Proto-West Germanic *spekan (“to negotiate”) from Proto-Indo-European *bʰégʾ-e- (“to distribute”) with *s-mobile, which collapsed in meaning with *sprekan ("to speak" < "to crackle, prattle") and so came to be seen as a free variant thereof. Cognates Cognate with Scots speak, speik (“to speak”), Saterland Frisian spreke (“to speak”), West Frisian sprekke (“to speak”), Central Franconian sjprèche (“to speak”), Dutch and Low German spreken (“to speak”), German sprechen (“to speak”), Luxembourgish spriechen (“to speak”), and also with Albanian shpreh (“to express, manifest, show”) through Indo-European.
Definitions
To communicate with one's voice, to say words out loud.
- I was so surprised I couldn't speak.
- You're speaking too fast.
To have a conversation.
- It's been ages since we've spoken.
To communicate or converse by some means other than orally, such as writing or facial…
To communicate or converse by some means other than orally, such as writing or facial expressions.
- He spoke of it in his diary.
- Speak to me only with your eyes.
- Actions speak louder than words.
›+ 12 more definitionsshow fewer
To deliver a message to a group
To deliver a message to a group; to deliver a speech.
- This evening I shall speak on the topic of correct English usage.
To be able to communicate in a language.
- He speaks Mandarin fluently.
To utter.
- And they will deceive every one his neighbour, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity.
- I was so surprised that I couldn't speak a word.
To communicate (some fact or feeling)
To communicate (some fact or feeling); to bespeak, to indicate.
- Their behaviour to each other speaks the most cordial confidence and happiness.
- There he sat, his very indifference speaking a nature in which there lurked no civilized hypocrisies and bland deceits.
To understand (as though it were a language).
- Sorry, I don't speak idiot.
- So you can program in C. But do you speak C++?
To produce a sound
To produce a sound; to sound.
- Make all our trumpets speak.
Of a bird, to be able to vocally reproduce words or phrases from a human language.
- Miles tremblingly confessed that it had, but to no purpose; a parrot being able to speak better in three weeks than a brazen head.
To address
To address; to accost; to speak to.
- [He will] thee in hope; he will speak thee fair.
- Each village senior paused to scan / And speak the lovely caravan.
Language, jargon, or terminology used uniquely in a particular environment or group.
- corporate speak; IT speak
- We'll go into more depth with all the specs shortly so anyone less well versed in espresso speak will understand what I'm harping on about, but firstly let's just talk about using the machine.
Speech, conversation.
Clipping of speaker point.
- We will deduct speaks for hesitation.
a low class bar, a speakeasy.
The neighborhood
- synonymarticulate
- synonymtalk
- synonymverbalize
- synonymbabble
- synonymblab
- synonymchat
- synonymchatter
- synonymconverse
- synonymdiscuss
- synonymjabber
- synonymmoot
- synonymopen one's mouth
- antonymbe silent
- neighborspeech
- neighborutter
- neighborcommunicate
- neighborblather
- neighborbloviate
- neighborblurt
- neighbordeclare
- neighbordrawl
- neighbordrone
- neighborexpound
- neighborgab
- neighborgabble
Derived
bespeak, forespeak, forspeak, forthspeak, misspeak, outspeak, overspeak, public speaking, speakable, speaker, speakeasy, speakworthy, re-speak, unspeak, unspeakable, upspeak, withspeak, speak down, speak for, speak out, speak to, speak up, artspeak, autospeak, cyberspeak, diplomat-speak, diplospeak, doublespeak, duckspeak, farspeak, Frogspeak, lawyerspeak, leetspeak, mallspeak, medspeak, Newspeak, nonspeak, oldspeak, speak-box, therapy-speak · +3 more
Vish — recursive loop
A definitional loop anchored at speak. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.
A definitional loop anchored at speak. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.
7 hops · closes at speak
curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA