different between speak vs mutter

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)

1. (intransitive) To communicate with one's voice, to say words out loud.

2. (intransitive, reciprocal) To have a conversation.

3. (by extension) To communicate or converse by some means other than orally, such as writing or facial expressions.

4. (intransitive) To deliver a message to a group; to deliver a speech.

5. (transitive) To be able to communicate in a language.
   1. (by extension) To be able to communicate in the manner of specialists in a field.
6. (transitive) To utter.

7. (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.
8. (informal, transitive, sometimes humorous) To understand (as though it were a language).

9. (intransitive) To produce a sound; to sound.
10. Of a bird, to be able to vocally reproduce words or phrases from a human language.
11. (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)

1. language, jargon, or terminology used uniquely in a particular environment or group.

   Corporate speak; IT speak.

2. Speech, conversation.

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

speak (plural speaks)

1. (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)

1. to speak

Derived terms

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?m?t?/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?m?t?/
• Rhymes: -?t?(?)
• Hyphenation: mut?ter

Etymology 1

From Middle English muteren, moteren, of imitative origin. Compare Low German mustern, musseln (“to whisper”), German muttern (“to mutter; whisper”), Old Norse muðla (“to murmur”). Compare also Latin mutt?re, mut?re.

Noun

mutter (plural mutters)

1. A repressed or obscure utterance; an instance of muttering.

   The prisoners were docile, and accepted their lot with barely a mutter.

Translations

Verb

mutter (third-person singular simple present mutters, present participle muttering, simple past and past participle muttered)

1. To utter words, especially complaints or angry expressions, indistinctly or with a low voice and lips partly closed; to say under one's breath.

   You could hear the students mutter as they were served sodden spaghetti, yet again, in the cafeteria.

   The beggar muttered words of thanks, as passersby dropped coins in his cup.
2. To speak softly and incoherently, or with imperfect articulations.

   The asylum inmate muttered some doggerel about chains and pains to himself, over and over.
3. To make a sound with a low, rumbling noise.

   April could hear the delivery van's engine muttering in the driveway.

Synonyms

• (speak under one's breath): growl, grumble, mumble
• (speak incoherently): babble, mumble, murmur, ramble, stutter
• (make a low sound): growl, putter, rumble
• See also Thesaurus:mutter

Derived terms

• mutterer

Translations

Etymology 2

From Hindi ??? (ma?ar)

Alternative forms

• matar

Noun

mutter

1. (Indian cuisine) Peas.

Derived terms

• mutter paneer

Danish

Etymology

From German Mutter (“mother”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /m?t?r/, [?m?d??], /mut?r/, [?mud??]

Noun

mutter c (singular definite mutteren, not used in plural form)

1. mommy, mummy, ma
2. old woman
3. missus

References

• “mutter” in Den Danske Ordbog

Estonian

Etymology

From a Germanic language, compare Finnish mutteri.

Noun

mutter (genitive mutri, partitive mutrit)

1. nut (that screws onto a bolt)

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From German Mutter

Noun

mutter m (definite singular mutteren, indefinite plural muttere or mutre or mutrer, definite plural mutterne or mutrene)

1. a nut (for bolts)

   skrue og mutter - nut and bolt

References

• “mutter” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From German Mutter

Noun

mutter m (definite singular mutteren, indefinite plural mutterar or mutrar, definite plural mutterane or mutrane)

1. a nut (for bolts)

References

• “mutter” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Swedish

Etymology

From or at least cognate to German Mutter.

Noun

mutter c

1. a nut (for bolts)

Declension

Noun

mutter n (uncountable)

1. mutter; obscure utterance

Declension