speak

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“
And in English-speak, he was made redundant -- their way of saying you got fired.

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Definitions (81)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (29)

  1. intransitive verb To utter words or articulate sounds with ordinary speech modulation; talk.
  2. intransitive verb To convey thoughts, opinions, or emotions orally.
  3. intransitive verb To express oneself.
26 more from this dictionary »

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (45)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (5)

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Examples (50)

  • In conventional business-speak, they leveraged their core competencies to respond to shifts in market demand. —  What is the (Next) Message?
  • Huh? This site can help you break the code of acronym-speak, the language that seems to be replacing the traditional ones we learned in school. —  Inc.com
  • In Toyota-speak, the design language is called "Vibrant Clarity". —  Autoblog
  • If something such as a language gets deconstructed (which one can argue internet-speak is a form of), it invariably undergoes a reconstruction later on. —  Blog updates
  • Look past the double-speak, and the answer will be staring you in the face. —  US Market Commentary from Seeking Alpha
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This word has been looked up 153 times.

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Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

write ·  oratory ·  utterance ·  speaker ·  preach ·  elocution ·  eloquence ·  sing ·  talker ·  diplomacy ·  leadership ·  read

Used in the same contextWord Family

speak:   spoke ·  speaking ·  spoken ·  speaks
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English speken, from Old English sprecan, specan.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Middle English speken (preterit spake, spak, spec, spæc, past participle spoken, spoke, earlier spæken, speokene, i-speken, ispeke), from late Anglo-Saxon specan, earlier sprecan (preterit spæc, plural spœ¯con, earlier spræc, plural sprœ¯con, past participle specen, earlier sprecen) = Old Saxon sprecan = OFries. spreka = Dutch spreken = Middle Low German Low German spreken = Old High German sprehhan, Middle High German G. sprechen, speak; cf. Middle High German spehten, chatter, German dial. spächten, speak; root unknown. Hence ult. speech, and perhaps spook.
 

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/spik/
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