SPEAKとは 意味・読み方・使い方

発音

• enPR: spēk′
• (Received Pronunciation, General Australian, New Zealand, India) IPA: /-ˌspiːk/
• (General American, Canada, Scotland) IPA: /-ˌspik/
• 韻: -iːk
• Homophone: speak
• ハイフネーション: -speak

接尾辞

-speak (noun-forming suffix, uncountable)

1. Indicates a manner of speech or writing typical of or characterized by the root term.

   Synonym: -ese

   • 2026 January 26, Amy Hawkins, “Fate of China’s top general more likely to do with power struggle than corruption”, in The Guardian‎, archived from the original on 26 January 2026:

     But on Saturday, China’s defence ministry announced that Zhang and Liu Zhenli, another CMC member, were under investigation for “suspected serious violations of discipline and law”, party-speak for corruption.

派生語

参照

• “speak”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.

アナグラム

• peaks, Pasek, Paske, Peaks, Paeks, Akpes, Spake, sapek, kapes, pesak, spake

別の表記

• speake, speke (obsolete)

語源

From 中期英語 speke, speken (“to speak”), from 古期英語 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.

発音

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /spiːk/
• (General American) enPR: spēk, IPA: /spik/
• 韻: -iːk

動詞

speak (third-person singular simple present speaks, present participle speaking, simple past spoke or (archaic) spake, past participle spoken or (colloquial, nonstandard) spoke)

1. (intransitive) To communicate with one's voice, to say words out loud.
   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 203:

     And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes. He said that if you wanted to do anything for them, you must rule them, not pamper them.

   I was so surprised I couldn't speak.

   You're speaking too fast.

2. (intransitive, reciprocal) To have a conversation.

   It's been ages since we've spoken.

3. (by extension) To communicate or converse by some means other than orally, such as writing or facial expressions.

   He spoke of it in his diary.

   Speak to me only with your eyes.

   Actions speak louder than words.

   • 1905, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], The Gods of Pegāna, London: [Charles] Elkin Mathews, […], →OCLC, page 4:

     Then said the gods, making the signs of the gods and speaking with Their hands lest the silence of Pegāna should blush; then said the gods to one another, speaking with Their hands: “Let Us make worlds to amuse Ourselves while Māna rests. Let Us make worlds and Life and Death, and colours in the sky; only let Us not break the silence upon Pegāna.”

   • 1941, Theodore Roethke, “Open House”, in Open House, New York, N.Y.: Alfred A[braham] Knopf, →OCLC; republished in The Collected Poems of Theodore Roethke, London: Faber and Faber […], 1968, →OCLC, page 3:

     The deed will speak the truth
     In language strict and pure.
     I stop the lying mouth:
     Rage warps my clearest cry
     To witless agony.

4. (intransitive) To deliver a message to a group; to deliver a speech.

   This evening I shall speak on the topic of correct English usage.

5. (transitive, stative) To be able to communicate in a language.

   He speaks Mandarin fluently.

   1. (by extension) To be able to communicate in the manner of specialists in a field.
      • 1998, Nigel G Fielding, Raymond M Lee, Computer Analysis and Qualitative Research‎, page 4:

        Even those who did 'speak computer' did so sometimes in a less than fluent way which required a jump to be made from a press-the-right-button stage to having the confidence to experiment.

6. (transitive) To utter.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Jeremiah 9:5:

     And they will deceive every one his neighbour, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity.

   I was so surprised that I couldn't speak a word.

7. (transitive) To communicate (some fact or feeling); to bespeak, to indicate.
   • 1785, Frances Burney, Diary and letters of Madame d'Arblay, author of Evelina, Cecilia, &c., link:

     Their behaviour to each other speaks the most cordial confidence and happiness.

   • 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “A Bosom Friend.”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 56:

     There he sat, his very indifference speaking a nature in which there lurked no civilized hypocrisies and bland deceits.

8. (informal, transitive, sometimes humorous) To understand (as though it were a language).

   Sorry, I don't speak idiot.

   So you can program in C. But do you speak C++?

9. (intransitive) To produce a sound; to sound.
   • c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene vi], page 150:

     Make all our trumpets speak.

10. Of a bird, to be able to vocally reproduce words or phrases from a human language.
    • 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 220:

      Miles tremblingly confessed that it had, but to no purpose; a parrot being able to speak better in three weeks than a brazen head.

11. (transitive, archaic) To address; to accost; to speak to.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Ecclesiasticus 13:6:

      [He will] thee in hope; he will speak thee fair.

    • 1847, R[alph] W[aldo] Emerson, “Threnody”, in Poems, Boston, Mass.: James Munroe and Company, →OCLC, page 239:

      Each village senior paused to scan / And speak the lovely caravan.

    • 1854 August 9, Henry D[avid] Thoreau, “Economy”, in Walden; or, Life in the Woods, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, →OCLC:

      To oversee all the details yourself in person; to be at once pilot and captain, and owner and underwriter; to buy and sell and keep the accounts; to read every letter received, and write or read every letter sent; to superintend the discharge of imports night and day; to be upon many parts of the coast almost at the same time—often the richest freight will be discharged upon a Jersey shore;—to be your own telegraph, unweariedly sweeping the horizon, speaking all passing vessels bound coastwise; [...]

    • 2013, George Francis Dow, Slave Ships and Slaving (quoting an older text)

      Spoke the ship Union of Newport, without any anchor. The next day ran down to Acra, where the windlass was again capsized and the pawls broken.

使用する際の注意点

• Saying that one speaks a language often means that one can or knows how to speak it (“I speak Italian”); similarly, “I don’t speak Italian” usually means that one cannot, rather than that one chooses not to.

Conjugation

同意語

• articulate, talk, verbalize

反意語

• be silent

等位語

• sign

派生語

関連する語

• speech

名詞

speak (countable and uncountable, plural speaks)

1. (uncountable) Language, jargon, or terminology used uniquely in a particular environment or group.

   corporate speak; IT speak

   • 2025 May 3, Kev, “Rocket Appartamento TCA Review”, in Coffee Blog‎:

     We'll go into more depth with all the specs shortly so anyone less well versed in espresso speak will understand what I'm harping on about, but firstly let's just talk about using the machine.

2. (countable) Speech, conversation. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
3. (countable, informal) Clipping of speaker point.

   We will deduct speaks for hesitation.

派生語

名詞

speak (plural speaks)

1. (dated) a low class bar, a speakeasy.

参照

• Hill, Eugen. "Die Präferenztheorie in der historischen Phonologie aus junggrammatischer Perspektive." Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft 28.2 (2009): 231–263.

アナグラム

• peaks, Pasek, Paske, Peaks, Paeks, Akpes, Spake, sapek, kapes, pesak, spake