Speech

How to spell speech

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce speech

What does speech mean?

1. nounThe act, power, or manner of expressing thoughts in spoken words.
2. nounA formal spoken talk delivered to an audience.

Speech in a sentence

• After the stroke, his speech slowly returned over several months.

• The best man gave a short speech at the wedding reception.

• Freedom of speech is protected in the constitution.

• She rehearsed her acceptance speech in front of the mirror.

Where does speech come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Speech is a native English word, descending from the Old English sprǣc or spǣc, which meant the act of speaking or the faculty of talking. That noun was closely tied to the verb sprecan, 'to speak', and both go back to a shared West Germanic root, which is why German still has the related Sprache for 'language' and sprechen for 'to speak'. Over the early medieval period English quietly dropped the awkward 'r' sound from the cluster, so sprecan became 'speak' and sprǣc became 'speech'. The long vowel that was once written with the æ letter eventually settled into the doubled 'ee' spelling we use today, and the final sound hardened into the 'ch' ending. The word has carried its core meaning of spoken expression continuously for well over a thousand years, later widening to also mean a formal address delivered to an audience.

How the word is built

• speech (single root noun, from Old English sprǣc/spǣc; related to the verb 'speak')