# speak

> English word · Verb · IPA /spiːk/ · frequency rank #1,004

## Definitions
1. To communicate with one's voice, to say words out loud.
2. To have a conversation.
3. To communicate or converse by some means other than orally, such as writing or facial expressions.
4. To deliver a message to a group; to deliver a speech.
5. To be able to communicate in a language.
6. To be able to communicate in a language.
7. To utter.
8. To communicate (some fact or feeling); to bespeak, to indicate.
9. To understand (as though it were a language).
10. To produce a sound; to sound.
11. Of a bird, to be able to vocally reproduce words or phrases from a human language.
12. To address; to accost; to speak to.

## Etymology
From Middle English speke, speken (“to speak”), from Old English specan (“to speak”). This is usually taken to be an irregular alteration of earlier sprecan, spreocan (“to speak”), from Proto-West Germanic *sprekan, from Proto-Germanic *sprekaną (“to speak, make a sound”), from Proto-Indo-European *spreg- (“to make a sound, utter, speak”). Finding this proposed loss of r from the stable cluster spr unparalleled, Hill instead sets up a different root, Proto-West Germanic *spekan (“to negotiate”) from Proto-Indo-European *bʰégʾ-e- (“to distribute”) with *s-mobile, which collapsed in meaning with *sprekan ("to speak" < "to crackle, prattle") and so came to be seen as a free variant thereof.
Cognates
Cognate with Scots speak, speik (“to speak”), Saterland Frisian spreke (“to speak”), West Frisian sprekke (“to speak”), Central Franconian sjprèche (“to speak”), Dutch and Low German spreken (“to speak”), German sprechen (“to speak”), Luxembourgish spriechen (“to speak”), and also with Albanian shpreh (“to express, manifest, show”) through Indo-European.

## Easily confused with
- **spec** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/speak-vs-spec)
- **sped** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/speak-vs-sped)
- **spew** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/speak-vs-spew)
- **spent** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/speak-vs-spent)
- **speed** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/speak-vs-speed)
- **spend** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/speak-vs-spend)
- **steam** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/speak-vs-steam)
- **swear** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/speak-vs-swear)
- **steal** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/speak-vs-steal)
- **spell** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/speak-vs-spell)
- **spray** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/speak-vs-spray)
- **sweat** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/speak-vs-sweat)
- **steak** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/speak-vs-steak)
- **sperm** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/speak-vs-sperm)
- **spear** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/speak-vs-spear)
- **specs** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/speak-vs-specs)
- **stead** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/speak-vs-stead)
- **spelt** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/speak-vs-spelt)
- **Spock** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/speak-vs-spock)
- **speck** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/speak-vs-speck)

## Common misspellings (7)
`pseak`, `sepak`, `spaek`, `speakk`, `speka`, `sppeak`, `sspeak`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/speak