speak in tongues
verb
Simple meaning
Speak unintelligibly in or as if in religious ecstasy.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
speekihntuhngzSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈspikɪnˈtʌŋz
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
archaic
Speak unintelligibly in or as if in religious ecstasy
archaic
To speak in a language unknown to the speaker, especially when in a state of religious ecstasy; glossolalia.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
This meaning: Speak unintelligibly in or as if in religious ecstasy
Used this way, speak in tongues is an old word kept alive mainly in historical writing with a clearly warm, approving pull. This is a religious use: it carries the weight of tradition and ceremony.
- Emotional tone
- Positive
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Archaic
- Connotation
- Old-fashioned
- Usage feel
- Dated in modern speech
Where it naturally appears
- Religion/spirituality
- Historical writing
- Literature/storytelling
Usage note
This meaning belongs to older English, so readers meet it in historical or literary texts rather than in current speech.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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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.