To use articulate utterance in the tones of the speaking-voice, in distinction from those of the singing-voice; exert the faculty of speech in uttering words for the expression of thought.
To make an oral address, as before a magistrate, a tribunal, a public assembly, or a company; deliver a speech, discourse, argument, plea, or the like: as, to speak for or against a person or a cause in court or in a legislature.
To make oral communication or mention; talk; converse: as, to speak with a stranger; to speak of or about something; they do not speak to each other.
To communicate ideas by written or printed words; make mention or tell in recorded speech.
To make communication by any intelligible sound, action, or indication; impart ideas or information by any means other than speech or writing; give expression or intimation.
Of an organ-pipe, to emit or utter a tone; sound.
Nautical, to make a stirring and lapping sound in driving through the water: said of a ship.
To bark when ordered: said of dogs.
A person with whom one is only sufficiently acquainted to interchange formal salutations or indifferent conversation when meeting casually.
To afford an indication of; intimate; denote.
To take or make account of; mention as notable or of consequence; deserve mention.
To admonish or rebuke.
Synonyms Speak, Talk. Speak is more general in meaning than talk. Thus, a man may speak by uttering a single word, whereas to talk is to utter words consecutively; so a man may be able to speak without being able to talk. Speak is also more formal in meaning: as, to speak before an audience; while talk implies a conversational manner of speaking.
To utter orally and articulately; express with the voice; enunciate.
To declare; utter; make known by speech; tell, announce, or express in uttered words.
To use in oral utterance; express one's self in the speech or tongue of: as, a person may read a language which he cannot speak.
To accost or address in speech; specifically (nautical), to accost at sea; hail and hold communication with by the voice, as a passing vessel.
To say, either in speech or in writing; use as a form of speech.
To produce by means or as a result of speech; bring about or into being by utterance; call forth.