Word.ws English Dictionary

downtalk

downtalk verb: to speak in a condescending or belittling way or manner, making someone or something seem less important or less intelligent.

Verb

downtalk (third-person singular simple present downtalks, present participle downtalking, simple past and past participle downtalked)

  1. (idiomatic, informal, intransitive, transitive) To speak in a condescending or belittling way or manner, making someone or something seem less important or less intelligent.
  2. (idiomatic, informal, transitive) To criticize or minimize something by speaking in this way or manner.

Forms of downtalk

third-person singular presentdowntalks
present participledowntalking
past participledowntalked
pastdowntalked

Origin of downtalk

From down + talk.

Words formed from downtalk

Questions about downtalk

What does downtalk mean?
Downtalk means to speak in a condescending or belittling way or manner, making someone or something seem less important or less intelligent.
What part of speech is downtalk?
Downtalk is a verb.
What is the past tense of downtalk?
The past tense of downtalk is downtalked.

Words near downtalk in the dictionary

  1. downswing
  2. downswings
  3. downtable
  4. downtake
  5. downtakes
  6. downtalk
  7. downtalked
  8. downtalker
  9. downtalkers
  10. downtalking
  11. downtalks

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: downtalk (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “downtalk.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/downtalk. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.