speech (n.)

  1. the act of delivering a formal spoken communication to an audience; he listened to an address on minor Roman poets

    [ Syn: address ]

  2. (language) communication by word of mouth; his speech was garbled; he uttered harsh language; he recorded the spoken language of the streets

    [ Syn: speech communication , spoken communication , spoken language , language , voice communication , oral communication ]

  3. something spoken; he could hear them uttering merry speeches'

  4. the exchange of spoken words; they were perfectly comfortable together without speech'

  5. your characteristic style or manner of expressing yourself orally; his manner of speaking was quite abrupt; her speech was barren of southernisms; I detected a slight accent in his speech

    [ Syn: manner of speaking , delivery ]

  6. a lengthy rebuke; a good lecture was my fathers idea of discipline; the teacher gave him a talking to

    [ Syn: lecture , talking to ]

  7. words making up the dialogue of a play; the actor forgot his speech

    [ Syn: actors line , words ]

  8. the mental faculty or power of vocal communication; language sets homo sapiens apart from all other animals

    [ Syn: language ]

The dictionary is based on the WordNet Electronic Lexical Database.
WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2011 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.