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speaker

noun

  1. person capable of verbal communication
  2. presiding officer of a deliberative assembly, especially a legislative body
  3. person who speaks a language
  4. person who is speaking or has spoken
  5. audio output device
L6506 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /ˈspikɚ/ / /ˈspiːkə/

name

  1. A surname

noun

Etymology: From Middle English speker, spekere, an alteration (with change of suffix) of Old English speca, spreca (“speaker”), from Proto-Germanic *sprekô (“speaker”), equivalent to speak + -er. Compare Saterland Frisian Spreeker (“speaker”), West Frisian sprekker (“speaker”), Dutch spreker (“speaker”), German Low German Spreker (“speaker”), German Sprecher (“speaker”).

  1. One who speaks.

    “There were three different speakers, but I couldn't make out their accents.”

    “This title is derived from the first verse of the book (1.1), which is a heading or colophon informing the reader who this Qoheleth was: he was the author of the book, or at least the speaker of the words which are contained in it ...”

  2. Loudspeaker.

    “She lost her hearing after standing too close to the speaker at the festival.”

  3. Speakerphone.

    “you're on speaker”

    “I'm gonna put you on speaker now”

  4. The chair or presiding officer of certain legislative bodies, such as the U.K. House of Commons or the U.S. House of Representatives.
  5. One who makes a speech to an audience.

    “Near-synonyms: orator, presenter, announcer”

    “hired speaker;   motivational speaker”

  6. A book containing passages of text for use in speeches.
  7. The producer of a given utterance, whether speech or text.

    “The speaker spelled out the words to be communicated, letter by letter, while the reader's hand read the speaker's message. In its original form the hand alphabet assumed that both speaker and reader could already speak and spell the words ...”

  8. The producer of a given utterance, whether speech or text.

    “Popular culture often incorrectly attributes quotes from the speakers of poems or songs to the authors thereof, as when "I took the one less traveled by" is attributed to Robert Frost rather than to the speaker in Frost's "The Road Not Taken".”

  9. A key on a woodwind instrument of the clarinet family (compare octave key on other instruments) which induces the instrument to overblow.
  10. A wooden pole or spike used by hedgers to carry loads on their shoulders. Possibly Dorset dialect.

    “With a speäker, or stake, he tossed the outlying scraps of fuel on the into the conflagration.”