Word.ws English Dictionary

speak in terms

speak in terms verb: to speak plainly.

Verb

speak in terms (third-person singular simple present speaks in terms, present participle speaking in terms, simple past spoke in terms, past participle spoken in terms)

  1. (archaic) To speak plainly.
    • […] while Mr. Elliot and Lord Milton and Mr. Ward, three of your party, stood foremost in the ranks to oppose the motion, and to speak in terms the most contumelious of the claims of the reformers […]1812, William Cobbett, Cobbett's Political Register, volume 21, page 773

Forms of speak in terms

third-person singular presentspeaks in terms
present participlespeaking in terms
pastspoke in terms
past participlespoken in terms

Questions about speak in terms

What does speak in terms mean?
Speak in terms means to speak plainly.
What part of speech is speak in terms?
Speak in terms is a verb.
What is the past tense of speak in terms?
The past tense of speak in terms is spoke in terms.

Words near speak in terms in the dictionary

  1. speak for oneself
  2. speak highly
  3. speak ill of
  4. speak in circles
  5. speak in dollars
  6. speak in terms
  7. speak in tongues
  8. speak like a book
  9. speak now or forever hold your peace
  10. speak of
  11. speak of the devil

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: speak in terms (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.

Last updated:

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