different words related to speech

Words for Speaking: 30 Speech Verbs in English (With Audio)

Speaking is amazing, don’t you think?

Words and phrases come out of our mouths — they communicate meaning, and we humans understand each other (well, sometimes)!

But there are countless different ways of speaking.

Sometimes, we express ourselves by speaking quietly, loudly, angrily, unclearly or enthusiastically.

And sometimes, we can express ourselves really well without using any words at all — just sounds.

When we describe what someone said, of course we can say, “He said …” or “She said …”

But there are so many alternatives to “say” that describe the many different WAYS of speaking.

Here are some of the most common ones.

Words for talking loudly in English

Shout / yell / scream.

Sometimes you just need to say something LOUDLY!

Maybe you’re shouting at your kids to get off the climbing frame and come inside before the storm starts.

Or perhaps you’re just one of those people who just shout a lot of the time when you speak. And that’s fine. I’ve got a friend like that. He says it’s because he’s the youngest kid in a family full of brothers and sisters — he had to shout to make sure people heard him. And he still shouts.

Yelling is a bit different. When you yell, you’re probably angry or surprised or even in pain. Yelling is a bit shorter and more “in-the-moment.”

Screaming is similar but usually higher in pitch and full of fear or pain or total fury, like when you’ve just seen a ghost or when you’ve dropped a box of bricks on your foot.

“Stop yelling at me! I’m sorry! I made a mistake, but there’s no need to shout!”

Bark / Bellow / Roar

When I hear these words, I always imagine something like this:

These verbs all feel rather masculine, and you imagine them in a deep voice.

I always think of an army general walking around the room telling people what to do.

That’s probably why we have the phrase “to bark orders at someone,” which means to tell people what to do in an authoritative, loud and aggressive way.

“I can’t stand that William guy. He’s always barking orders at everyone!”

Shriek / Squeal / Screech

Ooooohhh …. These do not sound nice.

These are the sounds of a car stopping suddenly.

Or the sound a cat makes when you tread on her tail.

Or very overexcited kids at a birthday party after eating too much sugar.

These verbs are high pitched and sometimes painful to hear.

“When I heard her shriek , I ran to the kitchen to see what it was. Turned out it was just a mouse.”

“As soon as she opened the box and saw the present, she let out a squeal of delight!”

Wailing is also high pitched, but not so full of energy.

It’s usually full of sadness or even anger.

When I think of someone wailing, I imagine someone completely devastated — very sad — after losing someone they love.

You get a lot of wailing at funerals.

“It’s such a mess!” she wailed desperately. “It’ll take ages to clear up!”

Words for speaking quietly in English

When we talk about people speaking in quiet ways, for some reason, we often use words that we also use for animals.

In a way, this is useful, because we can immediately get a feel for the sound of the word.

This is the sound that snakes make.

Sometimes you want to be both quiet AND angry.

Maybe someone in the theatre is talking and you can’t hear what Hamlet’s saying, so you hiss at them to shut up.

Or maybe you’re hanging out with Barry and Naomi when Barry starts talking about Naomi’s husband, who she split up with last week.

Then you might want to hiss this information to Barry so that Naomi doesn’t hear.

But Naomi wasn’t listening anyway — she was miles away staring into the distance.

“You’ll regret this!” he hissed , pointing his finger in my face.

To be fair, this one’s a little complicated.

Whimpering is a kind of traumatised, uncomfortable sound.

If you think of a frightened animal, you might hear it make some kind of quiet, weak sound that shows it’s in pain or unhappy.

Or if you think of a kid who’s just been told she can’t have an ice cream.

Those sounds might be whimpers.

“Please! Don’t shoot me!” he whimpered , shielding his head with his arms.

Whispering is when you speak, but you bypass your vocal cords so that your words sound like wind.

In a way, it’s like you’re speaking air.

Which is a pretty cool way to look at it.

This is a really useful way of speaking if you’re into gossiping.

“Hey! What are you whispering about? Come on! Tell us! We’ll have no secrets here!”

Words for speaking negatively in English

Ranting means to speak at length about a particular topic.

However, there’s a bit more to it than that.

Ranting is lively, full of passion and usually about something important — at least important to the person speaking.

Sometimes it’s even quite angry.

We probably see rants most commonly on social media — especially by PEOPLE WHO LOVE USING CAPS LOCK AND LOTS OF EXCLAMATION MARKS!!!!!!

Ranting always sounds a little mad, whether you’re ranting about something reasonable, like the fact that there’s too much traffic in the city, or whether you’re ranting about something weird, like why the world is going to hell and it’s all because of people who like owning small, brown dogs.

“I tried to talk to George, but he just started ranting about the tax hike.”

“Did you see Jemima’s most recent Facebook rant ? All about how squirrels are trying to influence the election results with memes about Macaulay Culkin.”

Babble / Blabber / Blather / Drone / Prattle / Ramble

These words all have very similar meanings.

First of all, when someone babbles (or blabbers or blathers or drones or prattles or rambles), it means they are talking for a long time.

And probably not letting other people speak.

And, importantly, about nothing particularly interesting or important.

You know the type of person, right?

You run into a friend or someone you know.

All you do is ask, “How’s life?” and five minutes later, you’re still listening to them talking about their dog’s toilet problems.

They just ramble on about it for ages.

These verbs are often used with the preposition “on.”

That’s because “on” often means “continuously” in phrasal verbs .

So when someone “drones on,” it means they just talk for ages about nothing in particular.

“You’re meeting Aunt Thelma this evening? Oh, good luck! Have fun listening to her drone on and on about her horses.”

Groan / Grumble / Moan

These words simply mean “complain.”

There are some small differences, though.

When you groan , you probably don’t even say any words. Instead, you just complain with a sound.

When you grumble , you complain in a sort of angry or impatient way. It’s not a good way to get people to like you.

Finally, moaning is complaining, but without much direction.

You know the feeling, right?

Things are unfair, and stuff isn’t working, and it’s all making life more difficult than it should be.

We might not plan to do anything about it, but it definitely does feel good to just … complain about it.

Just to express your frustration about how unfair it all is and how you’ve been victimised and how you should be CEO by now and how you don’t get the respect you deserve and …

Well, you get the idea.

If you’re frustrated with things, maybe you just need to find a sympathetic ear and have a good moan.

“Pietor? He’s nice, but he does tend to grumble about the local kids playing football on the street.”

Words for speaking unclearly in English

Mumble / murmur / mutter.

These verbs are all very similar and describe speaking in a low and unclear way, almost like you’re speaking to yourself.

Have you ever been on the metro or the bus and seen someone in the corner just sitting and talking quietly and a little madly to themselves?

That’s mumbling (or murmuring or muttering).

What’s the difference?

Good question!

The differences are just in what type of quiet and unclear speaking you’re doing.

When someone’s mumbling , it means they’re difficult to understand. You might want to ask them to speak more clearly.

Murmuring is more neutral. It might be someone praying quietly to themselves, or you might even hear the murmur of voices behind a closed door.

Finally, muttering is usually quite passive-aggressive and has a feeling of complaining to it.

“I could hear him muttering under his breath after his mum told him off.”

How can you tell if someone’s been drinking too much booze (alcohol)?

Well, apart from the fact that they’re in the middle of trying to climb the traffic lights holding a traffic cone and wearing grass on their head, they’re also slurring — their words are all sort of sliding into each other. Like this .

This can also happen if you’re super tired.

“Get some sleep! You’re slurring your words.”

Stammer / Stutter

Th-th-th-this is wh-wh-when you try to g-g-g-get the words ou-ou-out, but it’s dif-dif-dif-difficu-… hard.

For some people, this is a speech disorder, and the person who’s doing it can’t help it.

If you’ve seen the 2010 film The King’s Speech , you’ll know what I’m talking about.

(Also you can let me know, was it good? I didn’t see it.)

This can also happen when you’re frightened or angry or really, really excited — and especially when you’re nervous.

That’s when you stammer your words.

“No … I mean, yeah … I mean no…” Wendy stammered .

Other words for speaking in English

If you drawl (or if you have a drawl), you speak in a slow way, maaakiiing the voowweeel sounds loooongeer thaan noormaal.

Some people think this sounds lazy, but I think it sounds kind of nice and relaxed.

Some regional accents, like Texan and some Australian accents, have a drawl to them.

“He was the first US President who spoke with that Texan drawl .”

“Welcome to cowboy country,” he drawled .

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

That’s my impression of a dog there.

I was growling.

If you ever go cycling around remote Bulgarian villages, then you’re probably quite familiar with this sound.

There are dogs everywhere, and sometimes they just bark.

But sometimes, before barking, they growl — they make that low, threatening, throaty sound.

And it means “stay away.”

But people can growl, too, especially if they want to be threatening.

“‘Stay away from my family!’ he growled .”

Using speaking verbs as nouns

We can use these speaking verbs in the same way we use “say.”

For example, if someone says “Get out!” loudly, we can say:

“‘Get out!’ he shouted .”

However, most of the verbs we looked at today are also used as nouns. (You might have noticed in some of the examples.)

For example, if we want to focus on the fact that he was angry when he shouted, and not the words he used, we can say:

“He gave a shout of anger.”

We can use these nouns with various verbs, usually “ give ” or “ let out .”

“She gave a shout of surprise.”

“He let out a bellow of laughter.”

“I heard a faint murmur through the door.”

There you have it: 30 alternatives to “say.”

So next time you’re describing your favourite TV show or talking about the dramatic argument you saw the other day, you’ll be able to describe it more colourfully and expressively.

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8 thoughts on “ Words for Speaking: 30 Speech Verbs in English (With Audio) ”

Always enlighten and fun.. thank you

Great job! Thank you so much for sharing with us. My students love your drawing and teaching very much. So do I of course.

Good news: I found more than 30 verbs for “speaking”. Bad news, only four of them were in your list. That is to say “Good news I’m only 50 I still have plenty of time to learn new things, bad news I’m already 50 and still have so much learn. Thanks for your posts, they’re so interesting and useful!

Excellent. Can I print it?

Thanks Iris.

And yes — Feel free to print it! 🙂

Thanks so much! It was very interesting and helpful❤

Great words, shouts and barks, Gabriel. I’m already writing them down, so I can practise with them bit by bit. Thanks for the lesson!

Thank you so much for sharing with us. .It is very useful

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16 Other Words for Speaking

Learn 16 advanced English words for speaking. Image source

Let’s learn different English words for speaking! It’s useful vocabulary for different ways of speaking: yell, mumble, snap, whine, and more.

To improve your spoken English fast, join my Everyday English Speaking Courses , where you’ll learn hundreds of useful phrases for daily life.

yell / shout / scream / shriek = speak loudly

You might yell, shout, scream, or shriek if you are:

• Communicating with someone who is far away (usually yell / shout) “The soccer coach shouted instructions to the players on the field.”
• Angry (usually yell, shout, or scream) “My boss yelled at me after I missed an important deadline.”
• Afraid or surprised (usually scream / shriek) “Barbara shrieked when she found a giant spider in her bed.”
• In pain (usually scream / shriek) “The little boy started screaming when he accidentally closed his finger in the car door.”

Scream and shriek can also refer to making loud vocal sounds that are not words (especially in the case of fear, surprise, or pain).

cheer = yell / shout in a happy/excited way

People often cheer at sports games and after a great music/theater performance:

• “Everyone cheered when the Brazilian team scored a goal.”

whisper = speak extremely quietly

This is an example of whispering.

You would whisper in a movie theater so as not to disturb the other people – or when you don’t want anyone else to hear what you’re saying.

mumble = speak quietly and  not clearly, without opening your mouth very much

People often mumble when they don’t want to talk, or when they’re nervous, embarrassed, or have low confidence in general.

• “My son mumbled an apology to my daughter after breaking her favorite toy.”

mutter / murmur = speak in a quiet voice

The difference between these two is that mutter is usually complaining and saying negative things, whereas murmur is neutral.

• “He left the store muttering about the terrible customer service.”
• “My piano teacher murmured a few words of encouragement to me before I went on stage to perform.”

A similar word to mutter is grumble, meaning to complain in a quiet, low-pitched voice.

whine = complain in an annoying, high-pitched voice

• “My kids started whining when I told them they couldn’t watch TV until they had finished their homework.” (“But mooooom, that’s not faaaaiiir, I’ll miss my favorite prograaaaam!” )

ramble = speak continuously for a long time with too many details or different topics

• “You shouldn’t ramble during a job interview. Try to keep your answers concise and relevant.”

chat = have an informal conversation

You can use “chat” for informal conversations both online and offline.

• “The teacher was chatting with a few students in the hallway.”

stutter / stammer = speak repeating some sounds

If someone says: “P-p-please don’t d-do that” – they are stuttering or stammering. Some people do this frequently because they have a speech problem, and other people do it occasionally when they are extremely afraid or nervous.

gossip = talk about other peoples’ lives, especially negative things or secret details

• “My neighbor loves to gossip – I think she’s got some dirt on everyone who lives in this apartment building.” (“Dirt” is a slang word for some scandalous or secret information)

Gossip is both a verb and a noun for this type of speaking.

snap at (someone) = say a quick phrase in an annoyed/angry way

• “When I asked my wife if dinner was ready, she snapped at me.” (“If you want dinner, make it yourself!”)

Now try using each of these words for speaking in your own example sentence. Creating your own examples is a great way to remember English vocabulary better.

I hope you enjoyed learning all these “speaking” words! You can learn lots more useful vocabulary words in my Vocabulary Builder Courses.

If you’d like to focus on more advanced English words, check out my Advanced Vocabulary and Collocations Course.

Want to increase your vocabulary & improve your fluency?

More Espresso English Lessons:

About the author.

Shayna Oliveira

Shayna Oliveira is the founder of Espresso English, where you can improve your English fast - even if you don’t have much time to study. Millions of students are learning English from her clear, friendly, and practical lessons! Shayna is a CELTA-certified teacher with 10+ years of experience helping English learners become more fluent in her English courses.

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Synonyms of speaking

• as in talking
• as in communication
• as in saying
• as in lecturing
• More from M-W
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Thesaurus Definition of speaking

 (Entry 1 of 3)

Synonyms & Similar Words

• communicative
• well - spoken
• silver - tongued
• smooth - tongued

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• uncommunicative
• inarticulate
• tongue - tied

Thesaurus Definition of speaking  (Entry 2 of 3)

• communication
• talkativeness
• loquaciousness
• garrulousness
• verboseness
• speechlessness
• voicelessness
• inarticulateness
• taciturnity
• inarticulacy

Thesaurus Definition of speaking  (Entry 3 of 3)

• articulating
• verbalizing
• enunciating
• bringing out
• putting into words
• proclaiming
• broadcasting
• ventilating
• publicizing
• promulgating
• advertising
• getting off
• formulating
• spluttering
• ripping (out)
• formulizing
• piping up (with)
• suppressing
• discoursing
• expatiating
• holding forth
• taking the floor
• soliloquizing
• pontificating
• sermonizing
• filibustering

Phrases Containing speaking

• public speaking

Thesaurus Entries Near speaking

speak (for)

speaking (about)

Cite this Entry

“Speaking.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/speaking. Accessed 28 Jun. 2024.

More from Merriam-Webster on speaking

Nglish: Translation of speaking for Spanish Speakers

Britannica English: Translation of speaking for Arabic Speakers

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about speaking

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Speak Words

Words related to speak.

Below is a massive list of speak words - that is, words related to speak. The top 4 are: read , talk , write and communicate . You can get the definition(s) of a word in the list below by tapping the question-mark icon next to it. The words at the top of the list are the ones most associated with speak, and as you go down the relatedness becomes more slight. By default, the words are sorted by relevance/relatedness, but you can also get the most common speak terms by using the menu below, and there's also the option to sort the words alphabetically so you can get speak words starting with a particular letter. You can also filter the word list so it only shows words that are also related to another word of your choosing. So for example, you could enter "read" and click "filter", and it'd give you words that are related to speak and read.

You can highlight the terms by the frequency with which they occur in the written English language using the menu below. The frequency data is extracted from the English Wikipedia corpus, and updated regularly. If you just care about the words' direct semantic similarity to speak, then there's probably no need for this.

There are already a bunch of websites on the net that help you find synonyms for various words, but only a handful that help you find related , or even loosely associated words. So although you might see some synonyms of speak in the list below, many of the words below will have other relationships with speak - you could see a word with the exact opposite meaning in the word list, for example. So it's the sort of list that would be useful for helping you build a speak vocabulary list, or just a general speak word list for whatever purpose, but it's not necessarily going to be useful if you're looking for words that mean the same thing as speak (though it still might be handy for that).

If you're looking for names related to speak (e.g. business names, or pet names), this page might help you come up with ideas. The results below obviously aren't all going to be applicable for the actual name of your pet/blog/startup/etc., but hopefully they get your mind working and help you see the links between various concepts. If your pet/blog/etc. has something to do with speak, then it's obviously a good idea to use concepts or words to do with speak.

If you don't find what you're looking for in the list below, or if there's some sort of bug and it's not displaying speak related words, please send me feedback using this page. Thanks for using the site - I hope it is useful to you! 🐳

• communicate
• intercommunicate
• monologuize
• pontificate
• talk turkey
• interviewed
• call spade spade
• communicated
• conversation
• interrogate
• acknowledge
• answering questions
• participate
• memorialize
• untalkative
• memorialise
• soliloquise
• monologuise
• soliloquize
• tittle-tattle
• lawyerspeak
• gainspeaking
• verbalization
• doublespeak
• speechworthy
• glossolalia
• inarticulate
• speechmaking
• pronunciation
• confabulate
• interlocutory
• spokesperson
• articulable
• speak in tongue
• francophone
• blubber out
• shoot one's mouth off
• speak in tongues
• blunder out
• dish the dirt
• pronounceable
• begin speak
• articulator
• make gesture
• subvocalize
• heart to heart
• public speak
• non standard speech
• talk mile minute
• second hand speech
• receptive language
• say something
• communicate with others
• voice recognition
• instant messaging
• express information
• code switch
• verbal communication
• exchange of idea
• double talk
• lip service
• language lab
• produce sound
• bicycle wheel
• share information
• court reporter
• brazilian portuguese
• auditory communication
• receive pronunciation
• european portuguese
• presentations
• presentation

That's about all the speak related words we've got! I hope this list of speak terms was useful to you in some way or another. The words down here at the bottom of the list will be in some way associated with speak, but perhaps tenuously (if you've currenly got it sorted by relevance, that is). If you have any feedback for the site, please share it here , but please note this is only a hobby project, so I may not be able to make regular updates to the site. Have a nice day! 🐦

Bankruptcy court trustee in Alex Jones liquidation case previews 'wind-down' of media company

A federal bankruptcy court trustee appointed to oversee the liquidation of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' estate is asking a judge to temporarily block families and other creditors from seizing assets related to his media company, as he readies "an orderly wind-down process" and sale.

The trustee, Christopher Murray, "seeks this Court's intervention to prevent a value-destructive money grab and allow an orderly process to take its course," according to his emergency filing Sunday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas.

The move came after families who won a 2022 defamation lawsuit in Texas against Jones asked a state district court judge to compel his Free Speech Systems, which operates the Infowars platform, to turn over "all money," including "money held in any bank accounts or being controlled by any other third parties at the direction" of the media company.

But Murray said in his request that the "specter of a pell-mell seizure of FSS's assets, including its cash, threatens to throw the business into chaos, potentially stopping it in its tracks, to the detriment of the interests of the chapter 7 estate for which the Trustee is responsible."

The trustee's challenge is only the latest in the legal saga involving Jones, who broadcasts in the Austin area. He was sued in Texas and Connecticut by families who claimed he defamed them and inflicted emotional distress by repeatedly suggesting on his show that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre was a hoax. A gunman  killed 20 first grade children and six adults  at the school in Newtown, Connecticut.

The families were awarded $1.5 billion in total in their lawsuits, but they have been unable to collect anything from Jones, who has claimed he can't afford that big a sum and filed for bankruptcy in the wake of the verdicts.

During a court hearing this month, federal Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Lopez agreed to allow Jones to convert his bankruptcy filing into a  liquidation   of his personal assets  to help pay off the settlements.

But, in a decision that Jones had favored, the judge dismissed a separate bankruptcy case involving Free Speech Systems. That has allowed Jones to continue broadcasting although the future of his show on Infowars remains uncertain and he had suggested for weeks that it could come to an end.

At his defamation trial in Texas in 2022, Jones generally blamed "corporate media" for twisting his words and misportraying him but didn't specify how.

Jones' lawyer, Vickie Driver, said at this month's bankruptcy hearing that there is money that can go to the trustee in the form of the sale of Jones' $2.8 million Texas ranch.

Court filings indicate Jones has about $9 million in personal assets, while Free Speech Systems holds about $6 million in cash with more than $1 million in inventory.

Driver did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

A lawyer for the families in the Connecticut lawsuit against Jones had said they supported liquidating Free Speech Systems because they worry it would lead to individual families battling over the company's assets in state courts.

"This is precisely the unfortunate situation that the Connecticut families hoped to avoid when we argued that the Free Speech Systems/InfoWars case should have remained with the bankruptcy court rather than being dismissed," lawyer Christopher Mattei said in a statement. "The Connecticut families are disappointed by this attempt to undercut the orderly and long overdue winddown of Alex Jones's InfoWars platform."

Murray wants the court to impose a 90-day pause on any collection action by creditors against Free Speech Systems. It's unclear when the judge may rule.

Erik Ortiz is a senior reporter for NBC News Digital focusing on racial injustice and social inequality.

Screen Rant

Today's connections hints & answers for june 28, 2024 (puzzle #382).

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8 NYT Tiles Strategies To Score Huge Combos

10 best connections tips, tricks, & strategies, today's connections hints & answers for june 29, 2024 (puzzle #383).

In Connections , there are often definitions of words you might be unfamiliar with, and that could well be the case in today's puzzle. This puzzle employs connecting different words for the same objects but from different dialects of English instead of other types of synonyms. This can make it hard if you have not been exposed to dialects from other countries or known what was being said when you were.

If you like playing with words in Connections , you might also enjoy playing with words in Letter Boxe d . It is another NYT puzzle where you have to connect letters to make words around a box without landing on the same side twice in a row. It can be quite tricky but that also makes it very rewarding when you get it right.

The Tiles game for the New York Times mobile app asks you to use various strategies to pair matching visual patterns together to build huge combos.

Today's Connections Category Hints

June 28 #382.

Simply knowing the categories can go a long way toward figuring out a puzzle , and for those that only need that nudge, we have all the categories listed here without answers so you can figure it out yourself. For others, the answers are listed down below.

Today's Connections Answers

Yellow Answers: Revealed & Explained

This one was quite fun and reminded us of all the bags we have collected over the years. A CLUTCH for a night out, a TOTE for bringing home groceries or taking towels to the beach, a MESSENGER bag to take your laptop to school, and a SATCHEL, for when you have no idea what kind of bag it actually is.

Green Answers: Revealed & Explained

LICENSE seems to be an odd way to describe Wiggle Room when the biggest cultural reference is "license to kill." That's two James Bond references in a row for us since one appeared in yesterday's puzzle as well. However, it does make sense that it belongs in this category, but maybe the category itself could be worded better. That being said LICENSE and SLACK even in this context do not seem to have the same definition, so perhaps that was the issue.

Four categories with four words each sounds simple, but the daily challenge of the Connections game can prove difficult without a few tips to help.

Blue Answers: Revealed & Explained

Perhaps it's just us, but WORD does not really seem to fit with the others in this category. Or perhaps we have just never heard WORD used to prompt someone to continue. CUE, PROMPT, and SIGNAL feel very clearly connected. And, while WORD does have a definition that means "command or password" that does just feel a little different. Perhaps it's because it is strictly used as a noun, whereas the others can be used as either a noun or a verb.

Purple Answers: Revealed & Explained

This one is where dialects get involved, although that can be the case for the Types of Bags category as well. DRAWER is not used in every dialect of English to describe underwear, although BOXERS and BRIEFS are often used to distinguish different types of them. It's a little challenging because SLACK could fit here, so if you did not know DRAWER has that meaning you might get caught out.

Other Games Like Connections

Once you are done contemplating what the word WORD means, you can continue down the rabbit hole by trying the other word-based games listed below.

Connections