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Speech

/spiːt͡ʃ/ · noun

Meaning

(uncountable) The ability to speak; the faculty of uttering words or articulate sounds and vocalizations to communicate..

Definitions by Sense

  1. (uncountable) The ability to speak; the faculty of uttering words or articulate sounds and vocalizations to communicate.
  2. (uncountable) The act of speaking, a certain style of it.
  3. (countable) A formal session of speaking, especially a long oral message given publicly by one person.
  4. (countable) A dialect, vernacular, or (dated) a language.
  5. (uncountable) Language used orally, rather than in writing.
  6. (grammar) An utterance that is quoted; see direct speech, reported speech
  7. (uncountable) Public talk, news, gossip, rumour.
  8. (transitive, intransitive) To make (a speech); to harangue.

Example Sentences

He had a bad speech impediment.
After the accident she lost her speech.
All this was extraordinarily distasteful to Churchill. It was ugly, gross. Never before had he felt such repulsion when the vicar displayed his characteristic bluntness or coarseness of speech. In the present connexion[…] such talk had been distressingly out of place.
I was at liberty to attend to Wilbert, who I could see desired speech with me. […] As far as Bobbie and I were concerned, silence reigned, this novel twist in the scenario having wiped speech from our lips, as the expression is, but Phyllis continued vocal. […] For perhaps a quarter of a minute after he had passed from the scene the aged relative stood struggling for utterance. At the end of this period she found speech. “Of all the damn silly fatheaded things!”
It was hard to hear his speech over the noise.
Her speech was soft and lilting.
Manganism has been known about since the 19th century, when miners exposed to ores containing manganese, a silvery metal, began to totter, slur their speech and behave like someone inebriated.
The candidate made some ambitious promises in his campaign speech.

Synonyms for speech

locutionparlancespeechaddressallocutionmonologueorationsoliloquylanguageleidlingotonguelecturedeliverywordsspoken languagetalking tomanner of speakingoral communication

Antonyms for speech

Related Words

languagelectureaddresstalking todeliverywordsmanner of speakingoral communicationspoken languagewordinglinguisticenunciationrhetoricspeechifyingspokensayphrasespeakingwordspeaker

Word Forms

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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Frequently Asked Questions

What does speech mean?

Speech means (uncountable) The ability to speak; the faculty of uttering words or articulate sounds and vocalizations to communicate..

What is a synonym for speech?

Common synonyms include locution, parlance, speech, address.

What is the opposite of speech?

The opposite depends on the specific sense.

How do you use speech in a sentence?

He had a bad speech impediment.

Sources & Attribution

FreeDictionaryAPI.com / Wiktionary · Original source · CC BY-SA 4.0

Dictionary data is provided by FreeDictionaryAPI.com and sourced from Wiktionary under its stated license.