Word.ws English Dictionary

speak to

speak to verb: to give evidence regarding something; to attest or provide evidence for; to bespeak.

Verb

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

  1. (idiomatic) To give evidence regarding something; to attest or provide evidence for; to bespeak.
    • This definitely speaks to the fact that at Georgetown, beginning at the admissions process, you're not a number but a real person.2006, Staff of Vault, The College Buzz Book, page 176
    • Leaving aside the abundance of negativity for the time being, in aggregate these attempts at definition speak to the multitude of linguistic phenomena characteristic of language hybridity in multilingual settings, albeit explained with differing emphases by different definers.2018, James Lambert, “A multitude of ‘lishes’: The nomenclature of hybridity”, in English World-Wide, page 7
  2. (idiomatic) To address a particular topic.
    • Education for being speaks to what grows within the person himself1981, McGill journal of education
  3. (idiomatic) To (figuratively) resonate with; to feel emotionally relevant to.
    • His music really speaks to me.
    • With its pastel cover and pro-LGBTQ+ anthem “You Need to Calm Down,” Lover got a ton of airplay in that two-bedroom apartment. And the breakup songs—“Death by a Thousand Cuts,” “I Forgot That You Existed”—certainly spoke to me.2023 August 31, Frankie de la Cretaz, “Postcard from Camp Gaylore”, in Cosmopolitan

speak to meaning in Bengali and Sanskrit

speak to in Bengali

কোনো বিষয়ে প্রমাণ দেওয়া, সাক্ষ্য দেওয়া, প্রমাণ প্রদান করা, নির্দেশ করা, কারো হৃদয়ে সাড়া দেওয়া, মানসিকভাবে প্রাসঙ্গিক মনে হওয়া

speak to in Sanskrit

to speak to, address, invite
श्रम् śram

Forms of speak to

third-person singular presentspeaks to
present participlespeaking to
pastspoke to
past participlespoken to

Origin of speak to

First used in 1610 in the sense of 'discuss'. Use for the meaning of 'bespeak' is attested since the 1960s.

Questions about speak to

What does speak to mean?
Speak to means to give evidence regarding something; to attest or provide evidence for; to bespeak.
What is speak to in Bengali?
Speak to in Bengali is কোনো বিষয়ে প্রমাণ দেওয়া, সাক্ষ্য দেওয়া, প্রমাণ প্রদান করা. See Speak to meaning in Bengali.
What part of speech is speak to?
Speak to is a verb.
What is the past tense of speak to?
The past tense of speak to is spoke to.

Words near speak to in the dictionary

  1. speak one's mind
  2. speak out
  3. speak out of turn
  4. speak softly and carry a big stick
  5. speak someone's language
  6. speak to
  7. speak too soon
  8. speak truth to power
  9. speak up
  10. speak volumes
  11. speak well of

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: speak to (page history and authors); speak to (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); श्रम् (Sanskrit) (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-speak to.ogg.

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