speaker
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈspikɚ/
ipa: /ˈspiːkə/
rhymes: -iːkə(ɹ)
Forms: form: speakers
Etymology: From Middle English speker, spekere, an alteration (with change of suffix) of Old English speca, spreca (“speaker”), from Proto-Germanic *sprekô (“speaker”), equivalent to speak + -er. Compare Saterland Frisian Spreeker (“speaker”), West Frisian sprekker (“speaker”), Dutch spreker (“speaker”), German Low German Spreker (“speaker”), German Sprecher (“speaker”).
Senses: examples: text: There were three different speakers, but I couldn't make out their accents.
text: This title is derived from the first verse of the book (1.1), which is a heading or colophon informing the reader who this Qoheleth was: he was the author of the book, or at least the speaker of the words which are contained in it ...
ref: 1989, R. Norman Whybray, Ecclesiastes, A&C Black, →ISBN, page 15:
text: As [David] Bellos points out, those born as English speakers are now a minority of English speakers: most speak it as a second language. English is the world’s biggest interlanguage.
ref: 2011 October 28, Adam Thirlwell, “The Joyful Side of Translation”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 12 Nov 2020:
text: Each written word when spoken is mutually incomprehensible between a Mandarin speaker in Beijing and a Cantonese speaker in Hong Kong. If you think that’s odd, consider our number system: the symbol “9” is universally recognized but it’s pronounced “nine” in English and “devet” in Slovenian.
ref: 2021 April 25, John Malathronas, “Which languages are easiest – and most difficult – for native English speakers to learn?”, in CNN:
glosses: One who speaks.
examples: text: She lost her hearing after standing too close to the speaker at the festival.
glosses: Loudspeaker.
examples: text: you're on speaker
text: I'm gonna put you on speaker now
glosses: Speakerphone.
topics: government
politics
glosses: The chair or presiding officer of certain legislative bodies, such as the U.K. House of Commons or the U.S. House of Representatives.
examples: text: Near-synonyms: orator, presenter, announcer
text: hired speaker;   motivational speaker
text: The company hired a motivational speaker to boost morale.
synonyms: speechmaker
glosses: One who makes a speech to an audience.
glosses: A book containing passages of text for use in speeches.
examples: text: The speaker spelled out the words to be communicated, letter by letter, while the reader's hand read the speaker's message. In its original form the hand alphabet assumed that both speaker and reader could already speak and spell the words ...
ref: 2002, Merlin Donald, A Mind So Rare: The Evolution of Human Consciousness, W. W. Norton & Company, →ISBN, page 242:
glosses: The producer of a given utterance, whether speech or text.
raw_tags: in linguistics
examples: text: Popular culture often incorrectly attributes quotes from the speakers of poems or songs to the authors thereof, as when "I took the one less traveled by" is attributed to Robert Frost rather than to the speaker in Frost's "The Road Not Taken".
topics: communications
journalism
literature
media
poetry
publishing
writing
glosses: The producer of a given utterance, whether speech or text.
The literary character uttering the lyrics of a poem or song, as opposed to the author writing the words of that character.
raw_tags: in linguistics
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: A key on a woodwind instrument of the clarinet family (compare octave key on other instruments) which induces the instrument to overblow.
examples: text: With a speäker, or stake, he tossed the outlying scraps of fuel on the into the conflagration.
ref: 1878, Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native, page 18:
related: word: spyeker
glosses: A wooden pole or spike used by hedgers to carry loads on their shoulders. Possibly Dorset dialect.
Synonyms: sense: several senses
word: talker
word: speaker
Hypernyms: word: person
Hyponyms: word: monolingual
word: bilingual
word: trilingual
word: multilingual
word: polyglot
word: hyperpolyglot
Derived terms: doublespeaker
ear speaker
forespeaker
forthspeaker
gainspeaker
guest speaker
heritage speaker
interspeaker
intraspeaker
lawspeaker
lay speaker
multispeaker
native speaker
native-speaker
non-native-speaker
non-native speaker
nonspeaker
PA speaker
PC speaker
plenary speaker
public speaker
remote speaker
semispeaker
smart speaker
speaker base
speaker enclosure
speakeress
speakerless
speakerlike
speakerly
speaker point
speaker pro tempore
speakership
tongues-speaker
tongues speaker