How do you use the word "speech" in a sentence?

Here are real-life examples of using "speech": What if you gave a speech and nobody came? Speech is silver, but silence is golden.

Speech Meaning

/spiːt͡ʃ/

Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

Definition

nounThe ability to speak; the faculty of uttering words or articulate sounds and vocalizations to communicate.

nounThe act of speaking, a certain style of it.

Sentence Examples

What if you gave a speech and nobody came?

Speech is silver, but silence is golden.

This is only the first draft of my speech.

Synonyms & Antonyms

Synonyms:

language address

Antonyms:

None

CEFR Practice Quiz

During the ceremony, the principal gave a moving ____ that made everyone cry.

CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)

The president delivered a moving ____ at the ceremony to honor the brave heroes of the past.

Word Origin & History

From Middle English speche, from Old English spǣċ, sprǣċ (“speech, discourse, language”), from Proto-West Germanic *sprāku (“speech, language”), from Proto-Indo-European *spereg-, *spreg- (“to make a sound”). Cognate with Dutch spraak (“speech”), German Sprache (“language, speech”). More at speak.

Literary Quotations & Historical Citations

"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." — 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

"I was at liberty to attend to Wilbert, who I could see desired speech with me. […] As far as Bobbie and I were concerned, silence reigned, this novel twist in the scenario having wiped speech from our lips, as the expression is, but Phyllis continued vocal. […] For perhaps a quarter of a minute after he had passed from the scene the aged relative stood struggling for utterance. At the end of this period she found speech. “Of all the damn silly fatheaded things!”" — 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “XV AND XVIII”, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

"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." — 2014 April 21, “Subtle effects”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8884:

"The constant design of both these orators, in all their speeches, was to drive some one particular point." — 1720, Jonathan Swift, A Letter to a Young Clergyman:

"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.”" — 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “I AND XII”, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

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