talk

/tɔːk/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British[tʰoːk]

talk verb: to communicate, usually by means of speech.

Verb

talk (third-person singular simple present talks, present participle talking, simple past and past participle talked)

(intransitive) To communicate, usually by means of speech.
- Let's sit down and talk.
- Although I don't speak Chinese, I managed to talk with the villagers using signs and gestures.
(informal, transitive) To discuss; to talk about.
- They sat down to talk business.
- That's enough about work, let's talk holidays!
(transitive) To speak (a certain language).
- We talk French sometimes.
(informal, transitive) Used to emphasise the importance, size, complexity etc. of the thing mentioned.
- Are you interested in the job? They're talking big money.
- We're not talking rocket science here: it should be easy.
(intransitive, slang) To confess, especially implicating others.
- Suppose he talks?
- She can be relied upon not to talk.
(intransitive) To criticize someone for something of which one is guilty oneself.
- I am not the one to talk.
- She is a fine one to talk.
(intransitive) To gossip; to create scandal.
- People will talk.
- Aren't you afraid the neighbours will talk?
(transitive) To manifest outwardly in speech, as opposed to reality or action.
- Remember that Christ and Christianity may not always be the same thing; e.g. Jerry Falwell talks "Christianity" but practices hatred […] which is diametrically opposed to what Jesus really taught.1979 December 22, S. J. Harris, “Life And Spirit”, in Gay Community News, volume 2, number 22, page 5
(informal) To influence someone to express something, especially a particular stance or viewpoint or in a particular manner.
- That's not like you at all, Jared. The drugs are talking. Snap out of it!
- "So, are you going to give up all this good living and easy money and come fly for the Russians?"
  "Hello no. I told you that yesterday."
  "That was your wallet talking. The shooting has started. Now I appeal to your patriotism, your manhood, your sense of duty."2013, Stephen Coonts, Fortunes of War

Noun

talk (countable and uncountable, plural talks)

A conversation or discussion; usually serious, but informal.
- We need to have a talk about your homework.
- All this was extraordinarily distasteful to Churchill.[…]Never before had he felt such repulsion when the vicar displayed his characteristic bluntness or coarseness of speech. In the present connection—or rather as a transition from the subject that started their conversation—such talk had been...1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XXIV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC, pages 198–199
A lecture.
- There is a talk on Shakespeare tonight.
(uncountable) Gossip; rumour.
- There's been talk lately about the two of them.
(preceded by the, often qualified by a following of) A major topic of social discussion.
- She is the talk of the day.
- The musical is the talk of the town.
(preceded by the) A customary conversation in which parent(s) explain sexual intercourse to their child.
- Have you had the talk with Jay yet? I found a condom in his room.
(US, preceded by the) A customary conversation in which the parent(s) of a black child explain the racism and violence they may face, especially when interacting with police, and strategies to manage it.
- Later, I made sure to have the talk with my son about being a black boy, […]2012, Crystal McCrary, Inspiration: Profiles of Black Women Changing Our World, →ISBN
- All the black parents I have ever spoken to have had “the talk” with their sons and daughters. “The talk” is a conversation about how to behave and not to behave with police.2016, Jim Wallis, America's Original Sin: Racism, White Privilege, and the Bridge, →ISBN
(uncountable) Empty boasting, promises or claims.
- The party leader's speech was all talk.
(plural-normally) Meeting to discuss a particular matter.
- The leaders of the G8 nations are currently in talks over nuclear weapons.
Synonyms:

conference, debate, discussion, meeting

talk meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

talk in Hindi

to communicate by speech: बात करना bāt karnā, बोलना bolnā
conversation: बातचीत bātcīt

talk in Tamil

to communicate by speech: பேசு pēcu
to communicate by other means than speech: தொடர் toṭar, தொடர்பு கொள் toṭarpu koḷ
conversation: உரையாடல் uraiyāṭal
lecture: விரிவுரை virivurai, உரை urai

talk in Marathi

to communicate by speech: बोलणे bol.ɳe

talk in Urdu

to communicate by speech: بات کَرْنا bāt karnā, بولْنا bolnā
conversation: بات چیت bāt cīt

More languagesFewer languages

talk in Bengali: বলা bola
talk in Telugu: మాట్లాడు māṭlāḍu, కబుర్లు kaburlu, ప్రసంగం prasaṅgaṁ, చర్చనీయాంశం carcanīyāṁśaṁ
talk in Malayalam: സംസാരിക്കുക saṁsārikkuka, മിണ്ടുക miṇṭuka, പറയുക paṟayuka, സംസാരം saṁsāraṁ
talk in Kannada: ಸಂಭಾಷಣೆ, ಭಾಷಣ, ಚರ್ಚೆ, ಮಾತುಕತೆ
talk in Punjabi: بولنا bolṇā
talk in Gujarati: વાત vāt
talk in Odia: କଥାବାର୍ତ୍ତା କରନ୍ତୁ, କଥା ହୁଅନ୍ତୁ
talk in Sanskrit: भाषते bhāṣate
talk in Assamese: কথা পতা kotha pota, কথা কোৱা kotha küa, কথা বতৰা kotha botora
talk in Nepali: वार्ता vārtā, वार्तालाप vārtālāp, बोल्नु bolnu, कुरा kurā
talk in Pashto: خبرې کول xabǝ́re kawǝ́l
talk in Tagalog: magsalita, mag-usap
talk in Arabic: تَكَلَّمَ takallama, تَحَدَّثَ taḥaddaṯa, مُحَادَثَة muḥādaṯa, مُحَاضَرَة muḥāḍara
talk in Indonesian: bicara, ngomong, bincang, topik perbincangan
talk in Persian: گفتگو goftegu, goftogu, goftgu, صحبت sohbat, سخنرانی soxanrâni
talk in Thai: พูด pûut, คุย kui, สนทนา sǒn-tá-naa, กล่าว glàao
talk in Vietnamese: nói, nói chuyện, nói được, trò chuyện
talk in Myanmar: ပြော prau:, မြွက် mrwak

Examples of talk in a sentence

They tried to make me talk.
I will buy with you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so following, but I will not eat with you.c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies...
Then he commenced to talk, really talk. and inside of two flaps of a herring's fin he had me mesmerized, like Eben Holt's boy at the town hall show.1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter IV, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, page 99:
He was very easy to talk to with those long clown lines in his pale face, a natural goon, born rather too early she suspected.1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 5, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
Let’s go to my office and talk. ― I like to talk with you, Ms.2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

All 40 example sentences with talk

Synonyms of talk

12 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

silence

All synonyms and antonyms of talk

Forms of talk

Verb
third-person singular present	talks
present participle	talking
past participle	talked
past	talked
second-person singular present (archaic)	talkest
second-person singular past (archaic)	talkedst
third-person singular present (archaic)	talketh
alternative form (obsolete)	talke
alternative form (obsolete)	taulke
Noun
plural	talks

Past tense of talk: talked

Plural of talk: talks

Origin of talk

From Middle English talken, talkien, from Old English *tealcian (“to talk, chat”), from Proto-West Germanic *talkōn, from Proto-Germanic *talkōną (“to talk, chatter”), frequentative form of Proto-Germanic *talōną (“to count, recount, tell”), from Proto-Indo-European *dol-, *del- (“to aim, calculate, adjust, count”), equivalent to tell + -k. Cognates Cognate with Low German taalken (“to chatter, gossip, talk”). Related also to Bavarian zoin (“to pay”), Cimbrian zaln (“to pay”), Dutch talen (“to care, long; to speak; to say”), German zahlen (“to pay”), Mòcheno zoln (“to pay”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål tale (“to talk, speak”), Faroese, Icelandic, and Swedish tala (“to speak, talk”), Norwegian Nynorsk tala (“to speak, talk”); also Latin dolus (“deceit, deception, fraud, guile, treachery, trickery; malice; artifice, device, stratagem”), Ancient Greek δόλος (dólos, “deceit, trick; wiles; bait”), Armenian տող (toġ, “line (in a text)”). More at tale. Despite the surface similarity, unrelated to Proto-Indo-European *telkʷ- (“to talk”) (due to Grimm's law), which is the source of loquacious.

From Middle English talk, talke (“conversation; discourse”), from the verb (see above).

Words formed from talk

Phrases with talk

148 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with talk

11 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about talk

What does talk mean?: Talk means to communicate, usually by means of speech.
What is talk in Hindi?: Talk in Hindi is बात करना (bāt karnā), बोलना (bolnā), बातचीत (bātcīt). See Talk meaning in Hindi.
How do you use talk in a sentence?: They tried to make me talk.
What part of speech is talk?: Talk can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce talk?: Talk is pronounced /tɔːk/ (UK).
What is the past tense of talk?: The past tense of talk is talked.

Words near talk in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: talk (page history and authors); talk (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); بولنا (Punjabi) (page history and authors); વાત (Gujarati) (page history and authors); talk (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); कुरा (Nepali) (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-talk.wav, en-us-talk.ogg.

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