speech

Less common meanings

6. 6
   gossipnoundateduncountable

   Public talk; the news, gossip, or rumor circulating among people.

   Similartalk, gossip, rumor, chatter

   Note

   Talk as a town's common property. In Shakespeare and Fletcher, a duke asks "what was the speech among the Londoners / Concerning the French journey." The pattern is the speech among a group, concerning some matter. Unlike a public address, it is rarely plural and usually takes the, though older writers also speak of much speech about someone. Talk or gossip carries the same idea in plainer words. Source

   Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • The quoted passage belongs to a play jointly written by Shakespeare and Fletcher. en.wikipedia.org
   • A duke asks the quoted question; the Surveyor reports his question in Henry VIII, Act 1, scene 2. folger.edu
   • The article is not obligatory: Walter Yonge's diary uses 'a soddaine speech' for a circulating rumour. The absolute statement should be restricted to this example. kar.kent.ac.uk
7. 7
   quoted wordsnoununcountable

   Words someone said, as reproduced in a sentence or text: quoted exactly in direct speech, or recast in reported speech.

   In direct speech, the speaker's exact words appear between quotation marks.

   In reported speech, "I'm leaving" usually becomes "She said that she was leaving."

   UsageAlmost always in direct speech or reported speech (also called indirect speech).

   Similardiscourse

   Note

   Direct speech keeps the speaker's words verbatim. Reported speech, also called indirect speech, recasts them to fit a reporting clause. Besides the shifts in tense and pronoun, pointing words move too, so here can become there and now can become then.

8. 8
   actor's linesnouncountable

   A line or unbroken passage of lines delivered by a single character in a play.

   The actor forgot half of his long speech in the second act and had to improvise.

   The director cut two of the duke's speeches to keep the play under three hours.

   Similarmonologue

   Note

   In the theater the word divides a script into turns: whatever one character says before another speaks is a speech, and actors learn, deliver and cut them. A long one may be called a monologue; a soliloquy is the kind spoken alone, a character thinking aloud. Unlike a public address, a speech in a play can be a single line. Source

   Checked 5 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

   • A character’s individual utterance is a speech and forms a basic structural unit of a dramatic script. dev.tbe.kantl.be
   • A long speech by one character may be called a monologue. en.wiktionary.org
   • A soliloquy conventionally presents a character speaking alone and expressing their thoughts aloud. liberalarts.oregonstate.edu
   • A speech in a play can consist of a single line. dev.tbe.kantl.be
9. 9
   verbrare

   To deliver a speech; to address people at length, often in a forceful or hectoring manner.

   I'll speech against peace while Dismal's my name, / And be a true whig, while I'm Not-in-game.

   1711, Jonathan Swift, “An Excellent New Song. Being the Intended Speech of a Famous Orator against Peace [i.e., Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of…