speak
verb · noun
Simple meaning
To communicate with one's voice, to say words out loud.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
speekIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈspik
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
intransitive
To communicate with one's voice, to say words out loud.
transitive
To communicate (some fact or feeling); to bespeak, to indicate.
intransitivereciprocal
To have a conversation.
by extension
To communicate or converse by some means other than orally, such as writing or facial expressions.
intransitive
To deliver a message to a group; to deliver a speech.
Use language
noun
countable
Speech, conversation.
uncountable
Language, jargon, or terminology used uniquely in a particular environment or group.
countableinformal
Each of the points awarded to an individual speaker in a formal debate for speaking and debating well.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To communicate with one's voice, to say words out loud.
Used this way, speak is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
The utterance of intelligible speech.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
Someone who expresses in language.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
Express one's opinion openly and without fear or hesitation.
A trumpet-shaped acoustic device to intensify and direct the human voice.
A tube for conveying the sound of a voice from one room to another.
Be a spokesperson for.
Speak unintelligibly in or as if in religious ecstasy.
Mention someone's name who just then appears.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.