different between speak vs shriek

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

Alternative forms

• shreek (obsolete)

Etymology

From obsolete shrick (1567), shreke, variants of earier screak, skricke (bef. 1500), from Middle English scrycke, from a Scandinavian language (compare Swedish skrika, Icelandic skríkja), from Proto-Germanic *skr?kijan?, *skrik- (compare English screech). More at screech.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??i?k/
• Rhymes: -i?k

Noun

shriek (plural shrieks)

1. A sharp, shrill outcry or scream; a shrill wild cry such as is caused by sudden or extreme terror, pain, or the like.

   • Shrieks, clamours, murmurs, fill the frighted town.

   • 1912, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes, Chapter 5:

     Sabor, the lioness, was a wise hunter. To one less wise the wild alarm of her fierce cry as she sprang would have seemed a foolish thing, for could she not more surely have fallen upon her victims had she but quietly leaped without that loud shriek?

2. (Britain, slang) An exclamation mark.

Translations

Verb

shriek (third-person singular simple present shrieks, present participle shrieking, simple past and past participle shrieked)

1. (intransitive) To utter a loud, sharp, shrill sound or cry, as do some birds and beasts; to scream, as in a sudden fright, in horror or anguish.
   • At this she shriek'd aloud; the mournful train / Echoed her grief.
2. (transitive) To utter sharply and shrilly; to utter in or with a shriek or shrieks.
   • 1817, Thomas Moore, Lalla-Rookh

     She shrieked his name to the dark woods.

Derived terms

• ashriek

Translations

Anagrams

• Ihrkes, hikers, shrike