speech

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A formal talk given to an audience.

   The candidate made some bold promises in his campaign speech.

2. 2
   noun

   The ability to speak, or the act of speaking.

   After the stroke, he slowly recovered his speech.

3. 3
   noun

   The way someone speaks or talks.

   It was hard to follow his speech over the noise.

Common collocations

• acceptance speech Noun + noun
• speech intelligibility Noun + noun
• telegraphic speech Adjective + noun
• boring speech Adjective + noun
• florid speech Adjective + noun
• pompous speech Adjective + noun
• unintelligible speech Adjective + noun

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.

Topics

External links

• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary
• Google Images