0 the ability to talk, the activity of talking, or a piece of spoken language: --
Do you know the words to Hamlet's famous speech at the beginning of Act III?
Some expressions are used more in speech than in writing.
People who suffer a stroke may experience a loss of speech.
1 a formal talk given usually to a large number of people on a special occasion: --
Did you hear her acceptance speech at the Oscars ceremony?
He gave the after-dinner speech (= a talk given after a formal evening meal at which a large number of people are present).
The Governor of New York delivered a rousing speech to the national convention.
I had to give/make a speech at my brother's wedding.
2 the ability to talk, or the activity of talking: --
Some expressions are used more in speech than in writing.
His speech became slurred and indistinct.
People who suffer a stroke may experience a loss of speech.
3 a formal talk given usually to a large number of people on a special occasion: --
an acceptance speech
In political speeches and policy documents the tensions between equity, need and choice are reconciled into a seamless narrative of the move towards modernity.
Is present and, two hours before midnight, starts to deliver speeches.
His speeches are sequences of confined, obsessively repeated intervals or patterns that lack any forward momentum.
Throughout his lengthy speeches, he would talk directly to individuals, whom he knew personally or recalled from prior engagements.
At points, sermons feature as prominently as speeches.
Bands created a lively atmosphere while public speeches generated excitement: these were 'civilized' mass meetings for boycott aims under the guise of memorial service.
In recent days she had issued a number of statements to the press and also made several speeches 'against' the region's religious authorities, or dashmanan.
Not only did these women become a public, but they also helped form one that listened to their public speeches.
