Etimology
From Middle English speche, from Old English spǣċ, sprǣċ (“speech, discourse, language”), from Proto-West Germanic *sprāku (“speech, language”), from Proto-Indo-European *spereg-, *spreg- (“to make a sound”). Cognate with Dutch spraak (“speech”), German Sprache (“language, speech”). More at speak.
noun
speech (countable and uncountable, plural speeches)
(uncountable) The ability to speak; the faculty of uttering words or articulate sounds and vocalizations to communicate.
(uncountable) The act of speaking, a certain style of it.
(countable) A formal session of speaking, especially a long oral message given publicly by one person.
(countable) A dialect, vernacular, or (dated) a language.
(uncountable) Language used orally, rather than in writing.
(grammar) An utterance that is quoted; see direct speech, reported speech
(uncountable) Public talk, news, gossip, rumour.
Examples
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!”
Synonyms: see Thesaurus:speech
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.
Synonyms: address, allocution, monologue, oration, soliloquy
The candidate made some ambitious promises in his campaign speech.
The constant design of both these orators, in all their speeches, was to drive some one particular point.
He's going to present the prizes at Market Snodsbury Grammar School. We've been caught short as usual, and somebody has got to make a speech on ideals and the great world outside to those blasted boys, so he fits in nicely. I believe he's a very fine speaker. His only trouble is that he's stymied unless he has his speech with him and can read it. Calls it referring to his notes. […] “So that's why he's been going about looking like a dead fish. I suppose Roberta broke the engagement?” “In a speech lasting five minutes without a pause for breath.”
Synonyms: see Thesaurus:language
For thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech, and of an hard language, but to the house of Israel.
The speche of Englande is a base speche to other noble speches, as Italion, Castylion, and Frenche; howbeit the speche of Englande of late dayes is amended.
This word is mostly used in speech.
The duke […] did of me demand / What was the speech among the Londoners / Concerning the French journey.
Related words
hyponyms
after-dinner speech
byspeech
forespeech
pressured speech
related terms
speak
verb
speech (third-person singular simple present speeches, present participle speeching, simple past and past participle speeched)
(transitive, intransitive) To make a speech; to harangue.
Examples
I'll speech against peace while Dismal's my name, / And be a true whig, while I'm Not-in-game.
So to Speeching he did go, / And like a Man of Senſe, / He certainly ſaid Ay or No,
"He wasn't one to make himself big," said Mr. Jones. "But he had something that drew the people when he was speeching... When he came down we all used to shout 'Lloyd George am byth!' You know, 'Lloyd George forever!' That was just how we felt."