speak
Part of speech: verb
Morphological type: simple
Etymology: 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.
Inflected forms:
form: speaks
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: speaking
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: spoke
pos: verb
tags: past
form: spake
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
form: spoke
pos: verb
tags: colloquial
nonstandard
participle
past
form: no-table-tags
pos: verb
tags: table-tags
form: glossary
pos: verb
tags: inflection-template
form: speak
pos: verb
tags: infinitive
form: speak
pos: verb
tags: first-person
present
singular
form: spoke
pos: verb
tags: first-person
past
singular
form: speak
pos: verb
tags: present
second-person
singular
form: speakest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
second-person
singular
form: spoke
pos: verb
tags: past
second-person
singular
form: spokest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: speaks
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: speaketh
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
singular
third-person
form: spoke
pos: verb
tags: past
singular
third-person
form: speak
pos: verb
tags: plural
present
form: spoke
pos: verb
tags: past
plural
form: speak
pos: verb
tags: present
subjunctive
form: spoke
pos: verb
tags: past
subjunctive
form: speak
pos: verb
tags: imperative
present
form: -
pos: verb
tags: imperative
past
form: speaking
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: spoken
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: speake
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
form: speke
pos: verb
tags: alternative
obsolete
Senses:
gloss: To communicate with one's voice, to say words out loud.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes. He said that if you wanted to do anything for them, you must rule them, not pamper them.
I was so surprised I couldn't speak.
You're speaking too fast.
gloss: To have a conversation.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
reciprocal
examples: It's been ages since we've spoken.
gloss: To communicate or converse by some means other than orally, such as writing or facial expressions.
pos: verb
tags: broadly
examples: He spoke of it in his diary.
Speak to me only with your eyes.
Actions speak louder than words.
Then said the gods, making the signs of the gods and speaking with Their hands lest the silence of Pegāna should blush; then said the gods to one another, speaking with Their hands: “Let Us make worlds to amuse Ourselves while Māna rests. Let Us make worlds and Life and Death, and colours in the sky; only let Us not break the silence upon Pegāna.”
The deed will speak the truth
In language strict and pure.
I stop the lying mouth:
Rage warps my clearest cry
To witless agony.
gloss: To deliver a message to a group; to deliver a speech.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: This evening I shall speak on the topic of correct English usage.
gloss: To be able to communicate in a language.
pos: verb
tags: stative
transitive
examples: He speaks Mandarin fluently.
gloss: To be able to communicate in a language.
pos: verb
tags: broadly
stative
transitive
examples: Even those who did 'speak computer' did so sometimes in a less than fluent way which required a jump to be made from a press-the-right-button stage to having the confidence to experiment.
gloss: To utter.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: And they will deceive every one his neighbour, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity.
I was so surprised that I couldn't speak a word.
gloss: To communicate (some fact or feeling); to bespeak, to indicate.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: Their behaviour to each other speaks the most cordial confidence and happiness.
There he sat, his very indifference speaking a nature in which there lurked no civilized hypocrisies and bland deceits.
gloss: To understand (as though it were a language).
pos: verb
tags: humorous
informal
sometimes
transitive
examples: Sorry, I don't speak idiot.
So you can program in C. But do you speak C++?
gloss: To produce a sound; to sound.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Make all our trumpets speak.
gloss: Of a bird, to be able to vocally reproduce words or phrases from a human language.
pos: verb
examples: Miles tremblingly confessed that it had, but to no purpose; a parrot being able to speak better in three weeks than a brazen head.
gloss: To address; to accost; to speak to.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
transitive
examples: [He will] thee in hope; he will speak thee fair.
Each village senior paused to scan / And speak the lovely caravan.
To oversee all the details yourself in person; to be at once pilot and captain, and owner and underwriter; to buy and sell and keep the accounts; to read every letter received, and write or read every letter sent; to superintend the discharge of imports night and day; to be upon many parts of the coast almost at the same time—often the richest freight will be discharged upon a Jersey shore;—to be your own telegraph, unweariedly sweeping the horizon, speaking all passing vessels bound coastwise; [...]
Spoke the ship Union of Newport, without any anchor. The next day ran down to Acra, where the windlass was again capsized and the pawls broken.
Synonyms: articulate
talk
verbalize
babble
blab
chat
chatter
converse
discuss
jabber
moot
open one's mouth
say
speak
yak
yap
yammer
Antonyms: be silent
Related words: speech
utter
Derived words: bespeak
forespeak
forspeak
forthspeak
misspeak
outspeak
overspeak
public speaking
speakable
speaker
speakeasy
speakworthy
re-speak
unspeak
unspeakable
upspeak
withspeak
speak down
speak for
speak out
speak to
speak up
Translations:
lang: Amharic
word: ነገረ
roman: nägärä
lang: Arabic
word: تَكَلَّمَ
roman: takallama
lang: Arabic
word: حكى
roman: ḥaka
lang: Assyrian Neo-Aramaic
word: ܗܲܡܙܸܡ
roman: hāmzim
lang: Assyrian Neo-Aramaic
word: ܡܲܠܸܠ
roman: mālil
lang: Bashkir
word: һөйләшеү
roman: höyləşew
lang: Bashkir
word: һөйләшә белеү
roman: höyləşə belew
lang: Bulgarian
word: гово́ря
roman: govórja
lang: Catalan
word: parlar
lang: Cherokee
word: ᎯᏬᏂ
roman: hiwoni
lang: Chickasaw
word: anompoli
lang: Chinese Cantonese
word: 識講 /识讲
roman: sik¹ gong²
lang: Chinese Mandarin
word: 會說 /会说
roman: huì shuō
lang: Maore Comorian
word: ulagua
lang: Czech
word: mluvit
lang: Czech
word: umět
lang: Danish
word: snakke
lang: Danish
word: taler
lang: Dutch
word: spreken
lang: Esperanto
word: paroli
lang: Estonian
word: rääkima
lang: Finnish
word: osata
lang: Finnish
word: puhua
lang: French
word: parler
lang: Galician
word: falar
lang: German
word: sprechen
lang: Hebrew
word: דיבר \ דִּבֵּר
roman: dibér
lang: Hindi
word: बोलना
roman: bolnā
lang: Icelandic
word: tala
lang: Italian
word: parlare
lang: Japanese
word: 話す
roman: hanasu
lang: Jeju
word: ᄀᆞᆯ아지다
roman: gawrajida
lang: Khmer
word: និយាយ
roman: niyiəy
lang: Korean
word: 하다
roman: hada
lang: Latin
word: loquor
lang: Latvian
word: runāt
lang: Lithuanian
word: kalbėti
lang: Norman
word: pâler
lang: Norwegian Bokmål
word: snakke
lang: Ojibwe
word: -mo
lang: Polish
word: mówić
lang: Portuguese
word: falar
lang: Quechua
word: rimay
lang: Romanian
word: vorbi
lang: Russian
word: говори́ть
roman: govorítʹ
lang: Russian
word: разгова́ривать
roman: razgovárivatʹ
lang: Spanish
word: hablar
lang: Spanish
word: fablar
lang: Spanish
word: dominar (proficiently)
lang: Spanish
word: chapurrear
lang: Spanish
word: chapurrar
lang: Spanish
word: defenderse (mediocrely)
lang: Swedish
word: tala
lang: Swedish
word: kunna
lang: Vietnamese
word: biết nói
lang: Walloon
word: djåzer
lang: Walloon
word: cåzer
lang: Walloon
word: divizer
lang: Yiddish
word: רעדן
roman: redn
lang: Yoruba
word: gbọ́
lang: Yucatec Maya
word: tʼan