different between speak vs whine

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

Etymology

From Middle English whynen, hwinen, whinen, from Old English hw?nan (“to rush, to whizz, to squeal, to whine”), from Proto-West Germanic *hw?nan, from Proto-Germanic *hw?nan?, from Proto-Indo-European *?wey- (“to hiss, whistle, whisper”). Cognate with Old Norse hvína, whence Icelandic hvína, Norwegian hvine, Swedish vina, and Danish hvine.

Despite the strong similarity in sound and meaning, not related with German weinen, Dutch wenen, from Proto-Germanic *wain?n?.

Pronunciation

• enPR: w?n, IPA^(key): /wa?n/, [?a??n], [????n], [?ä?n], [??e?n]
• (without the wine–whine merger) enPR: hw?n, IPA^(key): /?a?n/
• Rhymes: -a?n
• Homophone: wine (accents with the wine-whine merger)

Noun

whine (plural whines)

1. A long-drawn, high-pitched complaining cry or sound.
2. A complaint or criticism.

Translations

Verb

whine (third-person singular simple present whines, present participle whining, simple past and past participle whined)

1. (intransitive) To utter a high-pitched cry.
2. (intransitive) To make a sound resembling such a cry.

   The jet engines whined at take off.

3. (intransitive) To complain or protest with a whine or as if with a whine.
4. (intransitive) To move with a whining sound.

5. (transitive) To utter with the sound of a whine.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:complain

Translations

Middle English

Verb

whine

1. Alternative form of whynen