Link Centre Dictionary

speak

UK/spiːk/ US/spik/ very common informal

verb

1.

express in speech

  • “She talks a lot of nonsense”
  • “This depressed patient does not verbalize”
Synonyms
2.

exchange thoughts; talk with

  • “We often talk business”
  • “Actions talk louder than words”
Synonyms
3.

use language

  • “the baby talks already”
  • “the prisoner won”
  • “;”
Synonyms
4.

give a speech to

  • “The chairman addressed the board of trustees”
Synonyms
5.

make a characteristic or natural sound

  • “The drums spoke”

Origin

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.

Phrases

  • public speaking
  • speak down
  • speak for
  • speak out
  • speak to
  • speak up
  • uwu speak Terms derived from speak (noun)
  • weather speak Terms derived from speak (noun)

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

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See also

Related verbs

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.