speak

Meaning

Verb

1. (intransitive) To communicate with one's voice, to say words out loud.
2. (intransitive, reciprocal) To have a conversation.
3. (broadly) To communicate or converse by some means other than orally, such as writing or facial expressions.
4. (intransitive) To deliver a message to a group; to deliver a speech.
5. (stative, transitive) To be able to communicate in a language.
6. (broadly, stative, transitive) To be able to communicate in a language.
7. (transitive) To utter.
8. (transitive) To communicate (some fact or feeling); to bespeak, to indicate.
9. (humorous, informal, sometimes, transitive) To understand (as though it were a language).
10. (intransitive) To produce a sound; to sound.
11. Of a bird, to be able to vocally reproduce words or phrases from a human language.
12. (archaic, transitive) To address; to accost; to speak to.

Noun

1. (uncountable) Language, jargon, or terminology used uniquely in a particular environment or group.
2. (countable) Speech, conversation.
3. (abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, countable, informal) Clipping of speaker point.

Noun

a low class bar, a speakeasy.

Synonyms

talk

🗣️

say

🗣️

tell

utter

converse

chat

address

declare

discuss

express

state

pronounce

mouth

speech

vocalize

mention

narrate

verbalize

voice

word

express oneself

speak loudly

have a conversation

mean

show

communicate

chatter

announce

relate

sound

🔉

recite

convey

inform

use

explain

give a speech

discourse

speak up

speak to

sing

ask for

report

ask

articulate

remark

render

statement

declaim

preach

pray

🛐

Translations

parler

🗣️

hablar

🗣️

sprechen

🗣️

parlare

🗣️

spreken

🗣️

falar

🗣️

reden

🗣️

μιλώ

dire

🗣️

parlar

🗣️

praten

🗣️

sagen

🗣️

decir

🗣️

dizer

🗣️

Pronounced as (IPA)

/spiːk/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: speken

Inherited from Old English: specan

Cognate with Western Frisian: sprekke

Cognate with Low German: spreken

Cognate with Dutch: spreken

Cognate with German: sprechen

Cognate with Albanian: shpreh

In summary

From Middle English speken (“to speak”), from Old English specan (“to speak”). This is usually taken to be an irregular alteration of earlier sprecan (“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 West Frisian sprekke, Low German spreken (“to speak”), Dutch spreken (“to speak”), German sprechen (“to speak”), and also with Albanian shpreh (“to utter, voice, express”) through Indo-European.

Sentences

We ignore the other parents who don’t speak French .

Why don't you speak ?

However , presenter will continue to speak about the sentencing each " criminal " had .

In another , the female subject could speak Bengali with a poor pronunciation .

Colotenango is traditionally a Maya community whose residents speak the Mayan Mam language .