Word.ws English Dictionary

speaks

UK/ˈspiːks/

speaks is the third-person singular simple present indicative of speak.

speaks is the plural of speak.

Meaning of speak

Verb

speak (third-person singular simple present speaks, present participle speaking, simple past spoke or (archaic) spake, past participle spoken or (colloquial, nonstandard) spoke)

  1. (intransitive) To communicate with one's voice, to say words out loud.
    • And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes. He said that if you wanted to do anything for them, you must rule them, not pamper them.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, page 203
  2. (intransitive, reciprocal) To have a conversation.
    • It's been ages since we've spoken.
  3. (broadly) To communicate or converse by some means other than orally, such as writing or facial expressions.
    • He spoke of it in his diary.
  4. (intransitive) To deliver a message to a group; to deliver a speech.
    • This evening I shall speak on the topic of correct English usage.
  5. (stative, transitive) To be able to communicate in a language.
    • He speaks Mandarin fluently.
    1. (broadly, stative, transitive) To be able to communicate in the manner of specialists in a field.
      • Even those who did 'speak computer' did so sometimes in a less than fluent way which required a jump to be made from a press-the-right-button stage to having the confidence to experiment.1998, Nigel G Fielding, Raymond M Lee, Computer Analysis and Qualitative Research, page 4

See all 15 meanings of speak

Phrases with speaks

13 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with speaks

8 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about speaks

What is speaks the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Speaks is the third-person singular simple present indicative of speak.
How do you pronounce speaks?
Speaks is pronounced /ˈspiːks/ (UK).

Words near speaks in the dictionary

  1. Speakmans
  2. speako
  3. speakos
  4. speakout
  5. speakouts
  6. speaks
  7. speaks as one finds
  8. speaks down to
  9. speaks for
  10. speaks for oneself
  11. speaks highly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: speaks (page history and authors); speak (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-us-speaks.ogg.

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