Adjacent Words

Speech definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

SPEECH, n.
1. The faculty of uttering articulate sounds or words, as in human beings; the faculty of expressing thoughts by words or articulate sounds. Speech was given to man by his Creator for the noblest purposes.
2. Language; words as expressing ideas. The acts of God to human ears cannot without process of speech be told.
3. A particular language, as distinct form others. Psalms 19.
4. That which is spoken; words uttered in connection and expressing thoughts. You smile at my speech.
5. Talk; mention; common saying. The duke did of me demand, what was the speech among the londoners concerning the French journey.
6. Formal discourse in public; oration; harangue. The member has made his first speech in the legislature.
7. Any declaration of thoughts. I, with leave of speech implor'd, repli'd.
SPEECH, v.i. To make a speech; to harangue. [Little used.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the act of delivering a formal spoken communication to an audience; "he listened to an address on minor Roman poets" [syn: address, speech]
2: (language) communication by word of mouth; "his speech was garbled"; "he uttered harsh language"; "he recorded the spoken language of the streets" [syn: speech, speech communication, spoken communication, spoken language, language, voice communication, oral communication]
3: something spoken; "he could hear them uttering merry speeches"
4: the exchange of spoken words; "they were perfectly comfortable together without speech"
5: your characteristic style or manner of expressing yourself orally; "his manner of speaking was quite abrupt"; "her speech was barren of southernisms"; "I detected a slight accent in his speech" [syn: manner of speaking, speech, delivery]
6: a lengthy rebuke; "a good lecture was my father's idea of discipline"; "the teacher gave him a talking to" [syn: lecture, speech, talking to]
7: words making up the dialogue of a play; "the actor forgot his speech" [syn: actor's line, speech, words]
8: the mental faculty or power of vocal communication; "language sets homo sapiens apart from all other animals" [syn: language, speech]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Middle English speche, from Old English spr?c, sp?c; akin to Old English sprecan to speak — more at speak Date: before 12th century 1. a. the communication or expression of thoughts in spoken words b. exchange of spoken words ; conversation 2. a. something that is spoken ; utterance b. a usually public discourse ; address 3. a. language, dialect b. an individual manner or style of speaking 4. the power of expressing or communicating thoughts by speaking

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 the faculty or act of speaking. 2 a formal public address. 3 a manner of speaking (a man of blunt speech). 4 a remark (after this speech he was silent). 5 the language of a nation, region, group, etc. 6 Mus. the act of sounding in an organ-pipe etc. Phrases and idioms: the Queen's (or King's) Speech a statement including the Government's proposed measures read by the sovereign at the opening of Parliament. speech day Brit. an annual prize-giving day in many schools, usu. marked by speeches etc. speech-reading lip-reading. speech therapist a person who practises speech therapy. speech therapy treatment to improve defective speech. speech-writer a person employed to write speeches for a politician etc. to deliver. Derivatives: speechful adj. Etymology: OE spræc, later spec f. WG, rel. to SPEAK

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Speech Speech, n. [OE. speche, AS. sp?c, spr?, fr. specan, sprecan, to speak; akin to D. spraak speech, OHG. spr[=a]hha, G. sprache, Sw. spr?k, Dan. sprog. See Speak.] 1. The faculty of uttering articulate sounds or words; the faculty of expressing thoughts by words or articulate sounds; the power of speaking. There is none comparable to the variety of instructive expressions by speech, wherewith man alone is endowed for the communication of his thoughts. --Holder. 2. he act of speaking; that which is spoken; words, as expressing ideas; language; conversation. Note: Speech is voice modulated by the throat, tongue, lips, etc., the modulation being accomplished by changing the form of the cavity of the mouth and nose through the action of muscles which move their walls. O goode God! how gentle and how kind Ye seemed by your speech and your visage The day that maked was our marriage. --Chaucer. The acts of God . . . to human ears Can nort without process of speech be told. --Milton. 3. A particular language, as distinct from others; a tongue; a dialect. People of a strange speech and of an hard language. --Ezek. iii. 6. 4. Talk; mention; common saying. The duke . . . did of me demand What was the speech among the Londoners Concerning the French journey. --Shak. 5. formal discourse in public; oration; harangue. The constant design of these orators, in all their speeches, was to drive some one particular point. --Swift. 6. ny declaration of thoughts. I. with leave of speech implored, . . . replied. --Milton. Syn: Syn. Harangue; language; address; oration. See Harangue, and Language.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Speech Speech, v. i. & t. To make a speech; to harangue. [R.]

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(speeches) Frequency: The word is one of the 1500 most common words in English. 1. Speech is the ability to speak or the act of speaking. ...the development of speech in children... ...a speech therapist specialising in stammering. 2. Your speech is the way in which you speak. His speech became increasingly thick and nasal... I'd make fun of her dress and imitate her speech. N-SING: usu poss N 3. Speech is spoken language. ...the way common letter clusters are usually pronounced in speech. 4. A speech is a formal talk which someone gives to an audience. She is due to make a speech on the economy next week... He delivered his speech in French. ...a dramatic resignation speech. N-COUNT 5. A speech is a group of lines spoken by a character in a play. ...the hilarious speech from Alan Bennett's 'Forty Years On'. N-COUNT 6. see also direct speech, figure of speech, indirect speech, maiden speech, part of speech, reported speech

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

spech ('imrah, dabhar, etc.; logos): "Speech," the articulate utterance of thought, is the tranlation of various Hebrew terms which convey this idea of "saying" or "word"; so, in the New Testament, the term generally so rendered is logos, "word." See LOGOS; WORD. Eulogia in Ro 16:18 is "fair speech"; lalia in Mt 26:73; Mr 14:70 the King James Version; Joh 8:43 is simply "talk." the Revised Version (British and American) has "speech" for various other words in the King James Version, as "matters" (1Sa 16:18, margin "bussiness"), "communication" (Mt 5:37; Eph 4:29), "words" (Lu 20:20; 1Co 14:9); "persuasiveness of speech" for "enticing words" (Col 2:4), etc.

W. L. Walker

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Articulate utterance. 2. Language, words. 3. Language, tongue, dialect. 4. Talk, parlance, verbal intercourse, oral communication, conversation. 5. Observation, remark, talk mention, saying. 6. Oration, discourse, address, harangue.

Moby Thesaurus

ESP, address, after-dinner speech, alliteration, allocution, allusion, anacoluthon, anadiplosis, analogy, anaphora, anastrophe, answer, answering, antiphrasis, antithesis, antonomasia, apophasis, aporia, aposiopesis, apostrophe, articulated, articulation, blast, bull session, catachresis, chalk talk, chiasmus, chinfest, choice of words, circumlocution, climax, commerce, communicating, communication, communicational, communion, communional, composition, confab, confabulation, congress, connection, contact, conversation, conversational, converse, conversion, correspondence, dealing, dealings, debate, declamation, dialect, dialogue, diatribe, diction, discourse, disquisition, duologue, ecphonesis, elocution, emphasis, enunciated, enunciation, eulogy, exchange, exclamation, exhortation, expression, filibuster, forensic, forensic address, formal speech, formulation, funeral oration, gemination, grammar, harangue, homily, hortatory address, hypallage, hyperbaton, hyperbole, idiom, inaugural, inaugural address, information, interacting, interaction, interactional, interactive, interchange, intercommunication, intercommunicational, intercommunicative, intercommunion, intercommunional, intercourse, interplay, interresponsive, interrogative, interrogatory, invective, inversion, irony, jargon, jeremiad, language, langue, lecture, line, lingo, lingua, lingual, linguistic, linguistic intercourse, litotes, locution, malapropism, meiosis, message, metaphor, metonymy, nuncupative, onomatopoeia, oral, oral communication, oration, oxymoron, palaver, paregmenon, parenthesis, parlance, parley, parol, parole, pep talk, periphrasis, peroration, personal usage, personification, philippic, phrase, phraseology, phrasing, pitch, pleonasm, prepared speech, prepared text, preterition, prolepsis, pronounced, public speech, question-and-answer session, questioning, reading, recital, recitation, regression, repetition, reply, response, responsive, rhetoric, said, sales pitch, sales talk, salutatory, salutatory address, sarcasm, say, screed, sermon, set speech, simile, similitude, social intercourse, song and dance, sounded, speaking, speech circuit, speech situation, speechification, speeching, spiel, spoken, spoonerism, syllepsis, symploce, synecdoche, talk, talkathon, talkfest, talking, telepathic, telepathy, tirade, tongue, touch, traffic, transmissional, trialogue, truck, two-way communication, unwritten, usage, use of words, usus loquendi, utterance, uttered, valediction, valedictory, valedictory address, verbal, verbalization, verbiage, vernacular, viva voce, vocal, vocalization, vocalized, voice, voiced, voiceful, voicing, wordage, wording, words, zeugma