Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Speech

Speech (spēch), n. [OE. speche, AS. spǣc, sprǣ, fr. specan, sprecan, to speak; akin to D. spraak speech, OHG. sprāhha, G. sprache, Sw. språk, Dan. sprog. See Speak.] 1. The faculty of uttering articulate sounds or words; the faculty of expressing thoughts by words or articulate sounds; the power of speaking.

There is none comparable to the variety of instructive expressions by speech, wherewith man alone is endowed for the communication of his thoughts. Holder.

2. he act of speaking; that which is spoken; words, as expressing ideas; language; conversation.

☞ Speech is voice modulated by the throat, tongue, lips, etc., the modulation being accomplished by changing the form of the cavity of the mouth and nose through the action of muscles which move their walls.

O goode God! how gentle and how kind Ye seemed by your speech and your visage The day that maked was our marriage. Chaucer.

The acts of God . . . to human ears Can nort without process of speech be told. Milton.

3. A particular language, as distinct from others; a tongue; a dialect.

People of a strange speech and of an hard language. Ezek. iii. 6.

4. Talk; mention; common saying.

The duke . . . did of me demand What was the speech among the Londoners Concerning the French journey. Shak.

5. formal discourse in public; oration; harangue.

The constant design of these orators, in all their speeches, was to drive some one particular point. Swift.

6. ny declaration of thoughts.

I. with leave of speech implored, . . . replied. Milton.

Syn. Harangue; language; address; oration. See Harangue, and Language.

Speech, v. i. & t. To make a speech; to harangue. [R.]

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.