different between explain vs speak
explain
English
Etymology
From Middle English explanen, from Old French explaner, from Latin explan? (“I flatten, spread out, make plain or clear, explain”), from ex- (“out”) + plan? (“I flatten, make level”), from planus (“level, plain”); see plain and plane. Compare esplanade, splanade. Displaced Old English ?ere??an.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /?k?sple?n/, /?k?sple?n/
- Rhymes: -e?n
Verb
explain (third-person singular simple present explains, present participle explaining, simple past and past participle explained)
- To make plain, manifest, or intelligible; to clear of obscurity; to illustrate the meaning of.
- To give a valid excuse for past behavior.
- (obsolete) To make flat, smooth out.
- (obsolete) To unfold or make visible.
- April 14, 1684, John Evelyn, a letter sent to the Royal Society concerning the damage done to his gardens by the preceding winter
- The horse-chestnut is […] ready to explain its leaf.
- April 14, 1684, John Evelyn, a letter sent to the Royal Society concerning the damage done to his gardens by the preceding winter
- (intransitive) To make something plain or intelligible.
Synonyms
- (give a sufficiently detailed report): expound, elaborate, recce
Derived terms
- afore-explained
- explain away
- explainer
- mansplain
- please explain
- -splain
Related terms
- explanation
- explanatory
Translations
Further reading
- explain in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- explain in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
- explain at OneLook Dictionary Search
explain From the web:
- what explains the shape of a demand curve
- what explains why the constitution was written
- what explains why the renaissance began in italy
- what explains how the particles in gases behave
- what explains the similarities in the pacific cultures
- what explains the existence of analogous structures
- what is the shape of demand curve
speak
English
Alternative forms
- speake (obsolete)
Etymology
From Middle English speken (“to speak”), from Old English specan (“to speak”), alteration of earlier sprecan (“to speak”), from Proto-West Germanic *sprekan, from Proto-Germanic *sprekan? (“to speak, make a sound”), from Proto-Indo-European *spreg- (“to make a sound, utter, speak”).
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /spi?k/
- (General American) enPR: sp?k, IPA(key): /spik/
- Rhymes: -i?k
Verb
speak (third-person singular simple present speaks, present participle speaking, simple past spoke or (archaic) spake, past participle spoken or (colloquial, nonstandard) spoke)
- (intransitive) To communicate with one's voice, to say words out loud.
- (intransitive, reciprocal) To have a conversation.
- (by extension) To communicate or converse by some means other than orally, such as writing or facial expressions.
- (intransitive) To deliver a message to a group; to deliver a speech.
- (transitive) To be able to communicate in a language.
- (by extension) To be able to communicate in the manner of specialists in a field.
- (by extension) To be able to communicate in the manner of specialists in a field.
- (transitive) To utter.
- (transitive) To communicate (some fact or feeling); to bespeak, to indicate.
- 1785, Frances Burney, Diary and letters of Madame d'Arblay, author of Evelina, Cecilia, &c., link:
- Their behaviour to each other speaks the most cordial confidence and happiness.
- 1785, Frances Burney, Diary and letters of Madame d'Arblay, author of Evelina, Cecilia, &c., link:
- (informal, transitive, sometimes humorous) To understand (as though it were a language).
- (intransitive) To produce a sound; to sound.
- Of a bird, to be able to vocally reproduce words or phrases from a human language.
- (transitive, archaic) To address; to accost; to speak to.
- [He will] thee in hope; he will speak thee fair.
- 1842, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Threnody in "Poems", published 1847, page 239
- Each village senior paused to scan / And speak the lovely caravan.
- 2013, George Francis Dow, Slave Ships and Slaving (quoting an older text)
- Spoke the ship Union of Newport, without any anchor. The next day ran down to Acra, where the windlass was again capsized and the pawls broken.
Usage notes
- Saying that one speaks a language often means that one can or knows how to speak it ("I speak Italian"); similarly, "I don't speak Italian" usually means that one cannot, rather than that one chooses not to.
Synonyms
- articulate, talk, verbalize
Antonyms
- be silent
Derived terms
Coordinate terms
- sign
Related terms
- speech
Translations
Noun
speak (countable and uncountable, plural speaks)
- language, jargon, or terminology used uniquely in a particular environment or group.
- Corporate speak; IT speak.
- Speech, conversation.
Derived terms
Translations
Noun
speak (plural speaks)
- (dated) a low class bar, a speakeasy.
Anagrams
- Akpes, Paeks, Pasek, Peaks, Spake, kapes, peaks, spake
Scots
Etymology
From Old English sprecan
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [sp?k]
- (North Northern Scots) IPA(key): [sp?k]
Verb
speak (third-person singular present speaks, present participle speakin, past spak, past participle spoken)
- to speak
Derived terms
speak From the web:
- what speakers fit my car
- what speaker wire to use
- what speakers work with alexa
- what speakers work with roku tv
- what speaks primordial 5e
- what speaks without a mouth
- what speaker wire is positive
- what speakers work with audio technica turntable
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