Talk

How to spell talk

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce talk

What does talk mean?

1. verbTo speak in order to give information or express thoughts.
2. nounA spoken presentation or a conversation on a particular subject.

Talk in a sentence

• verb

  We need to talk about the budget before the meeting.

• noun

  The visiting author gave a short talk about her latest book.

• verb

  The children like to talk loudly during long car journeys.

• noun

  We had a long talk about moving to a new city.

Where does talk come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word talk comes from late Old English and early Middle English, where the verb talken meant to speak or to converse. It is closely tied to the older Old English word talian, which meant to reckon, to count, or to tell, and which also lies behind the modern word tale. The sense shifted from counting and recounting toward the everyday act of speaking aloud, since to tell a tale and to talk both grow from the idea of putting things into words. The form is Germanic at heart, with cousins in other northern European languages connected to telling and reckoning. The silent l in the middle is the spelling trap: the letter is written but not sounded, so the word rhymes with walk and chalk rather than being said as it looks.

How the word is built

• talk (from Old English talian/Middle English talken, to speak or reckon)