speech

1. (uncountable) The ability to speak; the faculty of uttering words or articulate sounds and vocalizations to communicate.Examples: "He had a bad speech impediment."; "After the accident she lost her speech."; "All this was extraordinarily distasteful to Churchill. It was ugly, gross. Never before had he felt such repulsion when the vicar displayed his characteristic bluntness or coarseness of speech. In the present connexion[…] such talk had been distressingly out of place."uncountable

2. (uncountable) The act of speaking, a certain style of it.Examples: "It was hard to hear his speech over the noise."; "Her speech was soft and lilting."; "Manganism has been known about since the 19th century, when miners exposed to ores containing manganese, a silvery metal, began to totter, slur their speech and behave like someone inebriated."uncountable

3. (countable) A formal session of speaking, especially a long oral message given publicly by one person.Examples: "The candidate made some ambitious promises in his campaign speech."; "The constant design of both these orators, in all their speeches, was to drive some one particular point."; "He's going to present the prizes at Market Snodsbury Grammar School. We've been caught short as usual, and somebody has got to make a speech on ideals and the great world outside to those blasted boys, so he fits in nicely. I believe he's a very fine speaker. His only trouble is that he's stymied unless he has his speech with him and can read it. Calls it referring to his notes. […] “So that's why he's been going about looking like a dead fish. I suppose Roberta broke the engagement?” “In a speech lasting five minutes without a pause for breath.”"Synonyms: address, allocution, monologue, oration, soliloquycountable

4. (countable) A dialect, vernacular, or (dated) a language.Examples: "For thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech, and of an hard language, but to the house of Israel."; "The speche of Englande is a base speche to other noble speches, as Italion, Castylion, and Frenche; howbeit the speche of Englande of late dayes is amended."Synonyms: language, leid, lingo, speech, tonguecountable

5. (uncountable) Language used orally, rather than in writing.Examples: "This word is mostly used in speech."uncountable

6. (grammar) An utterance that is quoted; see direct speech, reported speechcountableuncountable