speak
- 01 C1 Advanced
v.to understand a difficult subject as if it were a language you know.
v.to be familiar with or understand a specific, often technical or complex, subject matter.
Simple“I don't speak computer, so you'll have to explain the error to me simply.”
In context“Unless you speak advanced calculus, the first half of the lecture will likely be incomprehensible to you.”
Synonyms - 02 B2 Upper Intermediate
v.to show a fact or a feeling without using words.
v.to serve as an indication or evidence of a particular quality or fact.
Simple“The empty house spoke of better times when the family lived there.”
In context“The silence in the room spoke volumes about the tension between the two negotiators.”
- 03 C1 Advanced
n.the special words used by a specific group of people.
n.the jargon, terminology, or characteristic way of speaking associated with a particular group or environment.
Simple“I couldn't understand the corporate speak used in the meeting.”
In context“The manual was written in such dense tech-speak that even the experienced engineers struggled to follow the instructions.”
UsageUsually appears as a suffix or the second part of a compound noun (e.g., 'corporate-speak', 'tech-speak').
speak vs talk — Speak focuses on the physical act of producing words or formal delivery, while talk focuses on the social exchange of a conversation.
Usage speak until · speaks to local · broadly speak
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.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.