different between speak vs pronounce
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
pronounce
English
Etymology
Recorded since c.1330 as Middle English pronouncen (“to utter, declare officially”), from Old French prononcier, from Latin pr?n?nti?, itself from pr?- (“forth, out, in public”) + n?nti? (“I announce”) from n?ntius (“messenger”).
Pronunciation
- (General American, Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /p???na?ns/
- Rhymes: -a?ns
Verb
pronounce (third-person singular simple present pronounces, present participle pronouncing, simple past and past participle pronounced)
- (transitive) To declare formally, officially or ceremoniously.
- (transitive) To declare authoritatively, or as a formal expert opinion.
- (transitive) To pronounce dead.
- 2015, April 30, Carol H. Allan, David R. Fowler (medical examiners), Freddie Gray autopsy: excerpt from the report, published in The Baltimore Sun, June 24, 2015
- Despite resuscitative efforts, Mr. Gray was pronounced on 4/19/2015.
- 2015, April 30, Carol H. Allan, David R. Fowler (medical examiners), Freddie Gray autopsy: excerpt from the report, published in The Baltimore Sun, June 24, 2015
- (transitive) To pronounce dead.
- (intransitive) To pass judgment.
- (transitive) To sound out (a word or phrase); to articulate.
- 1869, Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad, page 182:
- They spell it "Vinci" and pronounce it "Vinchy". Foreigners always spell better than they pronounce.
- (in passive) To sound like.
- 1869, Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad, page 182:
- (intransitive) To produce the components of speech.
- (transitive) To read aloud.
Derived terms
Related terms
- pronouncement
- pronunciation
Translations
Anagrams
- couponner
pronounce From the web:
- what pronounced mean
- what pronounced hwat
- what pronoun means
- what pronounce do you use
- what pronounce in english
- what pronounces a person dead
- how to pronounce the word pronounce
- how to pronounce the word what
you may also like
- speak vs pronounce
- awkwardness vs disturbance
- neighboring vs abutting
- unsettled vs ill-defined
- menial vs cringing
- waste vs wear
- uplift vs nobility
- determination vs award
- immovable vs contumacious
- improbable vs astonishing
- warm vs burning
- confraternity vs coalition
- magnificent vs shapely
- injurious vs offensive
- impertinent vs savage
- bold vs unabashed
- cramped vs minute
- jar vs discord
- profusion vs rankness
- sparingness vs jejuneness