Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🗣️ To talk 🎤 To give a speech 🌩️ To make a sound
to speak

to speak

369 6.5
To make a sound that seems to say something
  • verb
  • /spiːk/
  • Literature
: hablar
  • Alert to anything that might speak to me and give one of them away.
  • speak volumes
  • the environment speaks

They know that our heart speaks the language.

Autoplay Next

Examples

  • The wind seems to speak through the rustling leaves of the trees.

  • We speak to the earth, and in exchange, the Earth speaks back to us.

  • Our bodies have a way of speaking to us.

    Last Chance Charlene (2022)

  • How will the world speak my name in years to come?

    Gladiator (2000)

  • Um, well, I'll let it speak for itself.

    Air (2023)

  • Because your heart speaks, yes?

    The Badlanders (1958)

  • AH: That question speaks to how I kind of accidentally ended up writing YA.

    Academic text (2011)

  • Other items recovered from the townhouses speak to their residents being decidedly middle class.

    Academic text (2011)

  • Their earthy vigor and lusty happiness spoke to the deepest and best part of her nature.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • Indus literature speaks of a sacred fire, a smokeless flame, like the kind Moses saw on Mount Horeb when he encountered the burning bush.

    Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)

Synonyms

to utter
vsto speak
105 2.9

To say something aloud

is a natural object sound rather than an intentional human vocal action
to vocalize
vsto speak
14 4.4

To use your voice to show your thoughts or feelings

is produced naturally by things not by deliberate human voicing

Idioms

so to speak
192 5.6

As a way of saying something that is not exactly true

to speak someone's language
44 4.4

To talk in a way someone understands and likes

to speak volumes
  • Informal
31 5.7

To show a lot without using words

to speak of the devil
  • Informal
22 4.8

A phrase said when someone you are talking about appears

to speak in tongues
17 9.8

Make sounds like speech that others cannot understand during a strong religious feeling

to speak from the heart
  • Informal
11 3.7

Say something honestly and with strong feeling

speak now or forever hold your peace
  • Formal
7 8.5

Ask anyone who objects to speak now or be silent forever

to think before you speak
  • Informal
2 3.5

To pause and imagine how your words will affect others before you say them

to speak one's mind
  • Informal
1 3.5

Say what you think openly

nothing to speak of
1 6.1

Too small to be important

to speak with a forked tongue
  • Informal
1 9.6

Say things that are not true to trick others

to speak with venom
1 7.8

Say angry, cruel things about someone

to speak in circles
  • Informal
1 7.5

Talk without saying a clear answer, often repeating or being vague

to speak out of both sides of one's mouth
  • Informal
9.9

To say different things to different people to hide the truth

Phrasal Verbs

to speak to
∞ 1.7

To talk to someone about a problem or plan

to speak of
∞ 1.9

To talk about someone or something

to speak for
387 3.4

To say what another person or group thinks and wants

to speak out
296 3.4

To say your opinion or feelings openly even when it is difficult

to speak up
  • Informal
180 3.1

Give your opinion clearly and firmly even when it is difficult

to speak against
82 4.2

To say in public that you do not support something

to speak out against
55 4.1

Publicly say you are strongly against something or someone

to to speak of
48 6.8

Not enough to be worth mentioning

to speak clearly
19 1.0

Say words so other people can easily understand you

to speak up
19 2.0

Talk more loudly so people can hear you

to speak openly
13 3.4

Talk honestly without hiding facts or feelings

to speak in public
  • Formal
11 3.9

To talk in front of a group of people

to speak in code
6 7.7

To talk using secret words and signs that only a few people understand

to speak fondly of
2 3.6

To talk about someone or something in a warm, kind way

to speak with condescension
1 8.3

Talk to someone in a way that shows you feel better than them

to speak trimmingly
  • UK
9.9

Say something in a brief, critical way

to speak volcanically
  • Literature
8.6

To talk with strong, sudden feeling, often loudly or angrily

How Expressive

bellow
5 4.6
call
113 1.0
to speak
  • Literature
369 6.5
to murmur
84 4.2
rustle
10 4.4

Surface Forms

speak infinitive
speaking present participle
speaks third person singular
spoke past
spoken past participle

Etymology

Speak comes from an old German word meaning 'to say' and is the same root as speech. A helpful way to remember this sense is to think that things can 'speak' when they seem to 'say' something about themselves, so a sound from an object feels like a message.