speech
noun/spiːtʃ/
/spiːtʃ/
Word Family
- speak verb
- speaker noun
- speech noun
- spoken adjective (≠ unspoken)
- [countable] a formal talk that a person gives to an audience
- Several people made speeches at the wedding.
- She gave a rousing speech to the crowd.
- speech on something to deliver a speech on human rights
- speech about something He inspired everyone with a moving speech about tolerance and respect.
- in a speech In his acceptance speech, the actor thanked his family.
Synonyms speechspeechlecture ▪ address ▪ talk ▪ sermonThese are all words for a talk given to an audience.speech a formal talk given to an audience:- Several people made speeches at the wedding.
- a lecture on the Roman army
- a course/series of lectures
- a televised presidential address
- She gave an interesting talk on her visit to China.
- to preach a sermon
- a long/short speech/lecture/address/talk/sermon
- a keynote speech/lecture/address
- to write/prepare/give/deliver/hear a(n) speech/lecture/address/talk/sermon
- to attend/go to a lecture/talk
Extra ExamplesTopics Politicsa2- George Washington's inaugural speech
- He made a speech about workers of the world uniting.
- In a speech given last month, she hinted she would run for office.
- She delivered the keynote speech (= main general speech) at the conference.
- He wrote her party conference speech.
- His 20-minute speech was interrupted several times by booing.
- Her comments came ahead of a speech she will deliver on Thursday to business leaders.
- She concluded her speech by thanking the audience.
- He gave an impassioned speech broadcast nationwide.
- We heard a speech by the author.
- This is very unexpected—I haven't prepared a speech.
- The guest speaker is ill so I have to do the opening speech.
- He read his speech from a prompter.
- the farewell speech given by George Washington
- He made the comments in a nationally televised speech.
- During his victory speech the President paid tribute to his defeated opponent.
- In his concession speech, he urged his supporters to try to work with Republicans.
- The Prime Minister addressed the nation in a televised speech.
- He delivered his final speech to Congress.
- He delivered the commencement speech at Notre Dame University.
- His speech was broadcast on national radio.
- In her speech to the House of Commons, she outlined her vision of Britain in the 21st century.
- President Bush delivered his 2004 State of the Union speech.
- She gave a speech on the economy.
- She made a stirring campaign speech on improving the lot of the unemployed.
- The President will deliver a major foreign-policy speech to the United Nations.
- The candidates gave their standard stump speeches (= political campaign speeches).
- The prizewinner gave an emotional acceptance speech.
- a Senate floor speech
- her maiden speech (= her first) in the House of Commons
- the Chancellor's Budget speech
- the Prime Minister's speech-writers
- She's been asked to give the after-dinner speech.
- You will need to prepare an acceptance speech.
- a political speech writer
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- brief
- little
- short
- …
- deliver
- give
- make
- …
- writer
- in a/the speech
- speech about
- speech on
- …
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- [uncountable] the language used when speaking; the fact of speaking rather than writing
- in speech This expression is used mainly in speech, not in writing.
- a defence of free speech (= the right to say openly what you think)
- speech sounds
Extra Examples- the use of language in everyday speech
- The kids pepper their speech with a lot of slang and terms from social media.
- the difficulties of transcribing conversational speech
- Computer-generated speech has become significantly more intelligible and naturalistic.
- The poems are delivered in a style between speech and song.
- Improvements in speech recognition have produced digital assistants that can respond to spoken commands.
- A blind user can 'read' a newspaper using a Braille display or speech synthesizer.
- Her singing style is close to the natural rhythms of everyday speech.
- the speech rhythms of the Polish language
- He learned to successfully mimic American speech patterns.
- birds that mimic the intonations of human speech
- They were able to communicate without speech.
- In English, a letter does not always represent the same speech sound.
- Speech codes have been instituted by some universities (= to stop language that is sexist, racist, etc.).
- The country continues to suppress free speech and censor the internet.
- When the government restricts speech, this may be a violation of the First Amendment.
- racist hate speech
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- slurred
- clipped
- casual
- …
- pattern
- style
- defect
- …
- in speech
- a figure of speech
- freedom of speech
- the power of speech
- …
- [uncountable] the ability to speak
- I seemed to have lost the power of speech.
- a speech impediment
- The child was referred to a speech therapist.
Extra Examples- He temporarily lost the power of speech after the accident.
- It's a story about a kid who loses his powers of sight, hearing and speech.
- a child who has problems with speech and language
- a speech and language therapist
- After the stroke he had some difficulties with speech.
- the development of speech in humans
- Symptoms may include visual and speech impairment.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- slurred
- clipped
- casual
- …
- pattern
- style
- defect
- …
- in speech
- a figure of speech
- freedom of speech
- the power of speech
- …
- [uncountable] the way in which a particular person speaks
- Her speech was slurred—she was clearly drunk.
- Clear speech with crisp consonant sounds is very important.
Extra Examples- She could tell by his slurred speech that he had been drinking.
- She was slurring her speech.
- I find his speech very hard to understand.
- I don't like it when people correct my speech.
- His speech was incoherent, responding to questions that had not been asked.
- In halting speech, she began to tell her story.
- She has a very idiosyncratic style of speech.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- slurred
- clipped
- casual
- …
- pattern
- style
- defect
- …
- in speech
- a figure of speech
- freedom of speech
- the power of speech
- …
- [countable] a group of lines that an actor speaks in a play in the theatre
- She has the longest speech in the play.
see also figure of speech, part of speech
Word OriginOld English sprǣc, sprēc, later spēc, of West Germanic origin: related to Dutch spraak, German Sprache, also to speak.
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