speech

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   words making up the dialogue of a play

   The actor forgot their speech.

2. 2
   noun

   communication by word of mouth

   My speech was garbled.

3. 3
   noun

   the exchange of spoken words

   they were perfectly comfortable together without speech

4. 4
   noun

   something spoken

   They could hear them uttering merry speeches.

5. 5
   noun

   The ability to speak; the faculty of uttering words or articulate sounds and vocalizations to communicate.

   He had a bad speech impediment.

6. 6
   noun

   The act of speaking, a certain style of it.

   It was hard to hear his speech over the noise.

7. 7
   noun

   A formal session of speaking, especially a long oral message given publicly by one person.

   The candidate made some ambitious promises in his campaign speech.

8. 8
   noun

   A dialect, vernacular, or (dated) a language.

   For thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech, and of an hard language, but to the house of Israel.

Etymology

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.