what's another word speech

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noun as in talk

Strongest matches

• conversation

Strong matches

• articulation
• communication
• doublespeak
• enunciation
• intercourse
• pronunciation
• verbalization
• vocalization

Weak matches

• double talk
• mother tongue
• native tongue
• oral communication
• vocal expression

noun as in formal talk to audience

• declamation
• disquisition
• dissertation
• exhortation
• valedictory

Discover More

Example sentences.

Kids are interacting with Alexas that can record their voice data and influence their speech and social development.

The attorney general delivered a controversial speech Wednesday.

For example, my company, Teknicks, is working with an online K-12 speech and occupational therapy provider.

Instead, it would give tech companies a powerful incentive to limit Brazilians’ freedom of speech at a time of political unrest.

However, the president did give a speech in Suresnes, France, the next day during a ceremony hosted by the American Battle Monuments Commission.

Those are troubling numbers, for unfettered speech is not incidental to a flourishing society.

There is no such thing as speech so hateful or offensive it somehow “justifies” or “legitimizes” the use of violence.

We need to recover and grow the idea that the proper answer to bad speech is more and better speech.

Tend to your own garden, to quote the great sage of free speech, Voltaire, and invite people to follow your example.

The simple, awful truth is that free speech has never been particularly popular in America.

Alessandro turned a grateful look on Ramona as he translated this speech, so in unison with Indian modes of thought and feeling.

And so this is why the clever performer cannot reproduce the effect of a speech of Demosthenes or Daniel Webster.

He said no more in words, but his little blue eyes had an eloquence that left nothing to mere speech.

After pondering over Mr. Blackbird's speech for a few moments he raised his head.

Albinia, I have refrained from speech as long as possible; but this is really too much!

Related Words

Words related to speech are not direct synonyms, but are associated with the word speech . Browse related words to learn more about word associations.

noun as in formal speech or address

noun as in manner of conducting oneself

• comportment
• performance
• savoir-faire
• social graces
• way of life
• what's done

noun as in information transmitted

• announcement
• declaration
• information
• inside story
• intelligence
• translation

noun as in conversation

• confabulation

Viewing 5 / 44 related words

On this page you'll find 125 synonyms, antonyms, and words related to speech, such as: conversation, dialogue, discussion, expression, language, and tone.

From Roget's 21st Century Thesaurus, Third Edition Copyright © 2013 by the Philip Lief Group.

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Synonyms and antonyms of speech in English

Synonyms and examples, see words related to speech, speech | american thesaurus.

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kept secret from people

Hidden in plain sight: words and phrases connected with hiding

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Synonyms for speech

• communication
• conversation
• articulation
• intercourse
• verbal communication
• verbal expression
• pronunciation
• enunciation
• disquisition

the faculty, act, or product of speaking

• verbalization
• vocalization

spoken exchange

• confabulation

a usually formal oral communication to an audience

• declamation

a system of terms used by a people sharing a history and culture

The act of delivering a formal spoken communication to an audience, related words.

• introduction
• inaugural address
• public lecture
• oral presentation
• public speaking
• speechmaking

(language) communication by word of mouth

• oral communication
• speech communication
• spoken communication
• spoken language
• voice communication
• linguistic communication
• auditory communication
• give-and-take
• non-standard speech
• magic spell
• magical spell

something spoken

The exchange of spoken words.

• speech production

your characteristic style or manner of expressing yourself orally

• manner of speaking
• expressive style
• paralanguage
• paralinguistic communication
• tone of voice

a lengthy rebuke

• reprehension
• curtain lecture

words making up the dialogue of a play

• actor's line

the mental faculty or power of vocal communication

• mental faculty
• mental lexicon
• spectral color
• spectral colour
• spectrogram
• spectrograph
• spectrographic analysis
• spectrometer
• spectrometry
• spectrophotometer
• spectroscope
• spectroscopic
• spectroscopic analysis
• spectroscopical
• spectroscopy
• spectrum analysis
• spectrum line
• speculation
• speculative
• speculativeness
• speech community
• speech defect
• speech disorder
• speech intelligibility
• speech organ
• speech pattern
• speech perception
• speech rhythm
• speech sound
• speech spectrum
• speech therapist
• speech therapy
• speech-endowed
• speechifier
• speechlessness
• speechmaker
• speech-read
• speechwriter
• sped you up
• Spedition-Transport-Logistik Center
• Spedizione in Abbonamento
• Spedus Corp
• Spee embryo
• Spee, Ferdinand Graf von
• Spee, Maximilian Von
• Spee, Maximilian, Graf von
• Speece Thorson Capital Group
• Speech & Debate
• Speech & Debate Clause
• Speech & Hearing Association of Alabama
• speech abnormality
• Speech act theory
• Speech Activity Detector
• Speech acts
• speech aid prosthesis
• speech amplifier
• Speech Analytics
• Speech and Data
• Speech and Debate
• Speech and Debate Clause
• Speech and Hearing Center
• Speech and Hearing Sciences
• Speech and Language
• Facebook Share

Synonyms of 'speech' in British English

Additional synonyms, synonyms of 'speech' in american english.

Browse alphabetically speech

• speculation
• speculative
• speechifying
• All ENGLISH synonyms that begin with 'S'

Related terms of speech

• figure of speech

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  Vocabulary      

What is another word for speech ?

Synonyms for speech spitʃ speech, this thesaurus page includes all potential synonyms, words with the same meaning and similar terms for the word speech ., english synonyms and antonyms rate these synonyms: 0.0 / 0 votes.

Speech is the general word for utterance of thought in language . A speech may be the delivering of one's sentiments in the simplest way; an oration is an elaborate and prepared speech ; a harangue is a vehement appeal to passion, or a speech that has something disputatious and combative in it. A discourse is a set speech on a definite subject, intended to convey instruction. Compare CONVERSATION; DICTION; LANGUAGE.

Synonyms: address , address , discourse , disquisition , dissertation , harangue , language , oration , oratory , sermon , speaking , talk , utterance

Antonyms: hush , silence , speechlessness , stillness , taciturnity

Complete Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms Rate these synonyms: 3.0 / 1 vote

Synonyms: address , oration , harangue , discourse

Princeton's WordNet Rate these synonyms: 3.0 / 2 votes

address, speech noun

the act of delivering a formal spoken communication to an audience

"he listened to an address on minor Roman poets"

Synonyms: computer address , spoken communication , savoir-faire , delivery , reference , manner of speaking , actor's line , talking to , speech communication , words , voice communication , oral communication , lecture , address , language , spoken language , destination , name and address

speech, speech communication, spoken communication, spoken language, language, voice communication, oral communication noun

(language) communication by word of mouth

"his speech was garbled"; "he uttered harsh language"; "he recorded the spoken language of the streets"

Synonyms: words , manner of speaking , spoken communication , terminology , delivery , linguistic process , actor's line , talking to , speech communication , lecture , voice communication , oral communication , lyric , linguistic communication , address , language , spoken language , nomenclature

• speech noun

something spoken

"he could hear them uttering merry speeches"

Synonyms: words , manner of speaking , talking to , lecture , delivery , spoken language , oral communication , actor's line , spoken communication , address , speech communication , language , voice communication

the exchange of spoken words

"they were perfectly comfortable together without speech"

manner of speaking, speech, delivery noun

your characteristic style or manner of expressing yourself orally

"his manner of speaking was quite abrupt"; "her speech was barren of southernisms"; "I detected a slight accent in his speech"

Synonyms: pitch , manner of speaking , oral communication , delivery , spoken communication , actor's line , talking to , speech communication , words , livery , voice communication , spoken language , obstetrical delivery , lecture , rescue , address , deliverance , language , legal transfer , bringing , saving

lecture, speech, talking to noun

a lengthy rebuke

"a good lecture was my father's idea of discipline"; "the teacher gave him a talking to"

Synonyms: manner of speaking , spoken communication , talk , delivery , lecturing , actor's line , talking to , speech communication , words , voice communication , oral communication , public lecture , lecture , address , language , spoken language

actor's line, speech, words noun

words making up the dialogue of a play

"the actor forgot his speech"

Synonyms: manner of speaking , spoken communication , wrangle , run-in , delivery , actor's line , talking to , speech communication , words , voice communication , oral communication , quarrel , lecture , dustup , address , row , language , lyric , spoken language

language, speech noun

the mental faculty or power of vocal communication

"language sets homo sapiens apart from all other animals"

Synonyms: nomenclature , spoken communication , terminology , delivery , linguistic process , actor's line , talking to , speech communication , words , voice communication , oral communication , lyric , linguistic communication , address , language , spoken language , manner of speaking , lecture

Matched Categories

• Auditory Communication
• Expressive Style

Editors Contribution Rate these synonyms: 0.0 / 0 votes

homily noun

Dictionary of English Synonymes Rate these synonyms: 0.0 / 0 votes

Synonyms: articulate utterance

Synonyms: language , tongue , vernacular , idiom , dialect , LINGO

Synonyms: talk , parlance , verbal intercourse , oral communication

Synonyms: oration , discourse , address , harangue

Synonyms, Antonyms & Associated Words Rate these synonyms: 0.0 / 0 votes

speech adjective

Synonyms: utterance , speaking , language , talk , conversation , parlance , words , tongue , dialect , patois , discourse , oration , address , plea , declamation , dissertation , epilogue , allocution , exhortation , disquisition , effusion , descant , harangue , diatribe , tirade , screed , rhapsody , philippic , invective , rant , soliloquy , monologue , dialogue , colloquy , trialogue , interlocution , improvisation , toast , equivocation , prevarication , quibbling , ambages , pseudology , amphibology , amphiboly , dilogy

Associated words: extempore , extemporaneous , extemporize , extemporization , impromptu , improvise , improvisation , brogue , aphasia , amnesia , oratory , elocution , rhetoric , oratorical , rhetorical , rhetorician , elocutionary , peroration , voluble , volubility , fluent , fluency

PPDB, the paraphrase database Rate these paraphrases: 0.0 / 0 votes

List of paraphrases for "speech":

discourse , speeches , intervention , expression , address , discours , statement , discourses , floor , voice , speaking , rhetoric , talk , contribution , word , network , remarks , phrase , sermon , lecture , response , speak , term

Nicknames Rate these nicknames: 0.0 / 0 votes

List of known nicknames for "Speech":

Todd Thomas

Suggested Resources

Song lyrics by speech -- Explore a large variety of song lyrics performed by speech on the Lyrics.com website.

How to pronounce speech?

How to say speech in sign language, words popularity by usage frequency, how to use speech in a sentence.

Prophet Muhammad :

======== #6. Avoid alcohol for it is the mother of all evils ======== #7. Do not become angry and Paradise will be yours ======== #8. Beware of suspicion; suspicion is the most untrue speech ======== #9. If one of you loves his brother for the sake of Allah, let him tell him, for it does good and makes the love last ======== #10. Blessings are with your elders

Kailas Karthikeyan :

Most urban elites haven't heard of TikTok and those who have, tend to view it as a platform for trivial content. In reality, it hosts diverse content including a fair share of political speech.

Paul Gosar :

Politically correct speech doesn't run well.

Donald Trump :

There were problems with that speech, Judge, especially when he spoke about China and Russia and our potential friendship and our shared interests, we don't have shared interests. I'm sorry. [Vladimir Putin] is a KGB colonel. This is the kind of guy who tortured people during the Cold War and wants to destroy us.

Justice Party :

I believe it will discourage people from making hate speech and encourage people to correct systematic discrimination. At least people will know what behavior and words are discriminatory and subject to punishment.

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Add to chrome, add to firefox, browse synonyms.com, are you a human thesaurus, which of the following is a possible synonym for the word fury, nearby & related entries:.

• speculator noun
• speculators
• speculum noun
• Spede Pasanen
• speech act noun
• speech communication noun
• speech community noun
• speech day noun
• speech defect noun

Alternative searches for speech :

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Losing her speech made her feel isolated from humanity.

Synonyms: communication , conversation , parley , parlance

He expresses himself better in speech than in writing.

We waited for some speech that would indicate her true feelings.

Synonyms: talk , mention , comment , asseveration , assertion , observation

a fiery speech.

Synonyms: discourse , talk

• any single utterance of an actor in the course of a play, motion picture, etc.

Synonyms: patois , tongue

Your slovenly speech is holding back your career.

• a field of study devoted to the theory and practice of oral communication.
• Archaic. rumor .

to have speech with somebody

speech therapy

• that which is spoken; utterance
• a talk or address delivered to an audience
• a person's characteristic manner of speaking
• a national or regional language or dialect
• linguistics another word for parole

Discover More

Other words from.

• self-speech noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of speech 1

Synonym Study

Example sentences.

Kids are interacting with Alexas that can record their voice data and influence their speech and social development.

The attorney general delivered a controversial speech Wednesday.

For example, my company, Teknicks, is working with an online K-12 speech and occupational therapy provider.

Instead, it would give tech companies a powerful incentive to limit Brazilians’ freedom of speech at a time of political unrest.

However, the president did give a speech in Suresnes, France, the next day during a ceremony hosted by the American Battle Monuments Commission.

Those are troubling numbers, for unfettered speech is not incidental to a flourishing society.

There is no such thing as speech so hateful or offensive it somehow “justifies” or “legitimizes” the use of violence.

We need to recover and grow the idea that the proper answer to bad speech is more and better speech.

Tend to your own garden, to quote the great sage of free speech, Voltaire, and invite people to follow your example.

The simple, awful truth is that free speech has never been particularly popular in America.

Alessandro turned a grateful look on Ramona as he translated this speech, so in unison with Indian modes of thought and feeling.

And so this is why the clever performer cannot reproduce the effect of a speech of Demosthenes or Daniel Webster.

He said no more in words, but his little blue eyes had an eloquence that left nothing to mere speech.

After pondering over Mr. Blackbird's speech for a few moments he raised his head.

Albinia, I have refrained from speech as long as possible; but this is really too much!

Related Words

More about speech, what is speech .

Speech is the ability to express thoughts and emotions through vocal sounds and gestures. The act of doing this is also known as speech .

Speech is something only humans are capable of doing and this ability has contributed greatly to humanity’s ability to develop civilization. Speech allows humans to communicate much more complex information than animals are able to.

Almost all animals make sounds or noises with the intent to communicate with each other, such as mating calls and yelps of danger. However, animals aren’t actually talking to each other. That is, they aren’t forming sentences or sharing complicated information. Instead, they are making simple noises that trigger another animal’s natural instincts.

While speech does involve making noises, there is a lot more going on than simple grunts and growls. First, humans’ vocal machinery, such as our lungs, throat, vocal chords, and tongue, allows for a wide range of intricate sounds. Second, the human brain is incredibly complex, allowing humans to process vocal sounds and understand combinations of them as words and oral communication. The human brain is essential for speech . While chimpanzees and other apes have vocal organs similar to humans’, their brains are much less advanced and they are unable to learn speech .

Why is speech important?

The first records of the word speech come from before the year 900. It ultimately comes from the Old English word sprecan , meaning “to speak.” Scientists debate on the exact date that humanity first learned to speak, with estimates ranging from 50,000 to 2 million years ago.

Related to the concept of speech is the idea of language . A language is the collection of symbols, sounds, gestures, and anything else that a group of people use to communicate with each other, such as English, Swahili, and American Sign Language . Speech is actually using those things to orally communicate with someone else.

Did you know … ?

But what about birds that “talk”? Parrots in particular are famous for their ability to say human words and sentences. Birds are incapable of speech . What they are actually doing is learning common sounds that humans make and mimicking them. They don’t actually understand what anything they are repeating actually means.

What are real-life examples of speech ?

Speech is essential to human communication.

Dutch is just enough like German that I can read text on signs and screens, but not enough that I can understand speech. — Clark Smith Cox III (@clarkcox) September 8, 2009

I can make squirrels so excited, I could almost swear they understand human speech! — Neil Oliver (@thecoastguy) July 20, 2020

What other words are related to speech ?

• communication
• information

Quiz yourself!

True or False?

Humans are the only animals capable of speech .

Rhymes with Speech

• Pronounce Speech

How do you spell speech? Is it speach ?

• Speech in a sentence
• Quotes about Speech

2. speech-read

3. speech-endowed.

noun. ['ˈspiːtʃ'] the act of delivering a formal spoken communication to an audience.

• oral presentation
• inaugural address
• speechmaking
• introduction
• public speaking
• public lecture
• unrestrained
• speche (Middle English (1100-1500))
• spæc (Old English (ca. 450-1100))

How do you pronounce speech?

Pronounce speech as spiʧ.

US - How to pronounce speech in American English

UK - How to pronounce speech in British English

A common misspelling of speech is speach

Sentences with speech

1. Noun, singular or mass Some people prefer to keep the name of the winner a secret until the end of the speech . 2. Adjective A customer service award speech example might be: “_Darlene is a customer favorite. 3. Verb, base form HealthLinkBC points out children who are regularly exposed to speech and language tend to develop language skills faster 25.

Quotes about speech

1. A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous. - Ingrid Bergman 2. Love myself I do. Not everything, but I love the good as well as the bad. I love my crazy lifestyle, and I love my hard discipline. I love my freedom of speech and the way my eyes get dark when I'm tired. I love that I have learned to trust people with my heart, even if it will get broken. I am proud of everything that I am and will become. - Johnny Weir 3. She had lost the art of conversation but not, unfortunately, the power of speech . - George Bernard Shaw

verb. interpret by lipreading; of deaf people.

adjective. capable of speech.

noun. ['ˈspiːtʃ'] (language) communication by word of mouth.

• speech communication
• spoken communication
• voice communication
• spoken language
• oral communication
• magic spell
• auditory communication
• non-standard speech
• give-and-take
• pronunciation
• conversation
• magical spell
• communicative

noun. ['ˈspiːtʃ'] something spoken.

• vocalization

noun. ['ˈspiːtʃ'] a lengthy rebuke.

• curtain lecture
• reprehension
• monetization

noun. ['ˈspiːtʃ'] the exchange of spoken words.

• speech production

noun. ['ˈspiːtʃ'] your characteristic style or manner of expressing yourself orally.

• tone of voice
• paralanguage
• paralinguistic communication
• expressive style
• manner of speaking

noun. ['ˈspiːtʃ'] words making up the dialogue of a play.

• actor's line
• tactlessness

noun. ['ˈspiːtʃ'] the mental faculty or power of vocal communication.

• mental faculty
• continuance

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Campus protests over the Gaza war

As pro-palestinian protests spread, more university leaders weigh police involvement.

Meg Anderson

A Georgia State Patrol officer detains a protester on the campus of Emory University during a pro-Palestinian demonstration Thursday in Atlanta. Mike Stewart/AP hide caption

A Georgia State Patrol officer detains a protester on the campus of Emory University during a pro-Palestinian demonstration Thursday in Atlanta.

For the second time in a week, police arrested dozens of demonstrators at the University of Texas at Austin protesting Israel's war against Hamas. Protesters chanted for the police to leave, repeating: "We are being peaceful, you are being violent."

The scene at UT-Austin grew tense as campus police and state troopers deployed a chemical irritant to control the crowd. While some students dispersed, others were seen blocking police vans and resisting arrest. University officials said in a statement that the university took swift action to preserve a safe learning environment.

UT-Austin isn't the only school where clashes with law enforcement have escalated. At Emory University in Atlanta last week, police used pepper balls and tasers to control what they described as unruly protesters throwing bottles. Nationwide, there have been hundreds of arrests , including at Columbia University, the University of Southern California and at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Police, protesters clash at VCU student protests on campus tonight @RTDNEWS pic.twitter.com/o6MZUdScNp — Zach Joachim (@ZachJoachim) April 30, 2024

Yet other universities have taken a more hands off approach. A spokesperson for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology told NPR demonstrations there have been peaceful, though police are monitoring and MIT's president has urged an end to its encampment.

Sometimes the response has shifted even at the same institution. Columbia University initially sent police to quell the protests. University President Minouche Shafik announced on Friday the school has no plans to call police to campus to respond to the demonstrations. On Monday, the university began suspending students who refused to leave a pro-Palestinian encampment by a 2 p.m. deadline. Minouche said officials need to enforce the school's rules and norms.

These vastly different approaches on when to involve police – and when not to – underscore the delicate balance between a desire to protect free speech and keep a college safe and functioning.

Universities can choose how to react

Alex Morey, the director of campus rights advocacy at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, says responses vary in part because individual colleges decide how to regulate speech on campus. They outline where students can post flyers, or what time of day protests need to end. Those rules are allowed, as long as they apply to any student group, regardless of the cause, Morey says.

She says many campuses don't allow tent encampments, for instance.

"If I were a college administrator and there was an encampment on my campus and it was not causing disruption, you may as well let it lie if you're going to cause more disruption by removing it. But they do have the right to remove it if they choose to do so," she says.

At the University of California, Berkeley, for instance, Assistant Vice Chancellor Dan Mogulof says their policy is to avoid police involvement unless it's absolutely necessary.

"Every action has a reaction, and sometimes the reaction is antithetical to what your goals are. Law enforcement is an important resource, but it can also have unintended consequences," he says.

Mogulof says Berkeley's protests have been peaceful so far. He says the school is committed to both free speech and to keeping the university safe and functioning.

"There can be a tension between those objectives," he says. "And the trick is to manage those inherent tensions, the right to freely express your perspective, but also the right to pursue your academic interests."

Other universities are trying to strike a similar balance.

At Northwestern University, officials negotiated an agreement with protesters, making a plan on where students can continue to protest while not breaking the university's rules.

"This agreement represents a sustainable and de-escalated path forward, and enhances the safety of all members of the Northwestern community while providing space for free expression that complies with University rules and policies," university officials wrote in a statement .

A balancing act

But at some universities, that balancing act has become more fraught.

Washington University in St. Louis told NPR in a statement that the university protects free speech, but that right doesn't include activities that disrupt the functions of the university. On Saturday, university officials made the call to arrest 100 people it said "did not have good intentions" and were mostly unaffiliated with the school, according to a statement .

On Sunday, demonstrators at the University of California, Los Angeles breached a barrier set up to separate pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protesters, resulting in "physical altercations," according to a university spokesperson. Campus police eventually separated the two groups.

At Northeastern University, campus police arrested around 100 people Saturday after an encampment was "infiltrated by professional organizers with no affiliation" to the school and who were using "virulent antisemitic slurs," including "Kill the Jews," officials told NPR in a statement.

"All of these factors, taken together, left university leaders with no choice but to act," Chancellor Ken Henderson and Provost David Madigan wrote . "Over the weekend, like many colleges and universities nationwide, Northeastern faced an untenable dilemma."

Jewish students at several universities have reported feeling unsafe. A group of Jewish students at the University of Minnesota say they have seen "violent and hateful messages" on campus and no longer feel safe. Jewish student groups at other schools on Friday demanded that campus officials take stronger measures to ensure their safety.

Pro-Palestinian protesters at other universities have also expressed safety concerns, saying they've been doxxed and harassed. And they also say universities are stifling free speech.

David Cole, national legal director at the American Civil Liberties Union, says colleges have to intervene if there is violence or targeted threats of violence, but short of that, it is "ultimately an exercise in discretion."

He says schools may also face pressure from politicians and donors to respond harshly. At Columbia, hundreds of alumni signed a statement this week demanding the school strongly discipline students who engage in threats and hate speech and remove all illegal encampments.

But sometimes pressure can backfire, Cole says.

"History demonstrates that if you try to suppress protests, you will only strengthen the side that you are seeking to vanquish," he says.

In the meantime, schools will continue grappling with safety concerns as the school year ends and graduation season gets underway.

Toward the end of its semester, Columbia University switched to hybrid classes. The University of Michigan is enlisting volunteers to be part of "protest and disruptions response" teams to work during May commencement ceremonies, and the University of Southern California recently announced it is canceling its main commencement ceremony altogether.

• Israelis and Palestinians
• college protests

America’s Colleges Are Reaping What They Sowed

Universities spent years saying that activism is not just welcome but encouraged on their campuses. Students took them at their word.

Listen to this article

Produced by ElevenLabs and News Over Audio (NOA) using AI narration.

N ick Wilson, a sophomore at Cornell University, came to Ithaca, New York, to refine his skills as an activist. Attracted by both Cornell’s labor-relations school and the university’s history of campus radicalism, he wrote his application essay about his involvement with a Democratic Socialists of America campaign to pass the Protecting the Right to Organize Act . When he arrived on campus, he witnessed any number of signs that Cornell shared his commitment to not just activism but also militant protest, taking note of a plaque commemorating the armed occupation of Willard Straight Hall in 1969.

Cornell positively romanticizes that event: The university library has published a “ Willard Straight Hall Occupation Study Guide ,” and the office of the dean of students once co-sponsored a panel on the protest. The school has repeatedly screened a documentary about the occupation, Agents of Change . The school’s official newspaper, published by the university media-relations office, ran a series of articles honoring the 40th anniversary, in 2009, and in 2019, Cornell held a yearlong celebration for the 50th, complete with a commemorative walk, a dedication ceremony, and a public conversation with some of the occupiers. “ Occupation Anniversary Inspires Continued Progress ,” the Cornell Chronicle headline read.

As Wilson has discovered firsthand, however, the school’s hagiographical odes to prior protests has not prevented it from cracking down on pro-Palestine protests in the present. Now that he has been suspended for the very thing he told Cornell he came there to learn how to do—radical political organizing—he is left reflecting on the school’s hypocrisies. That the theme of this school year at Cornell is “Freedom of Expression” adds a layer of grim humor to the affair.

Evan Mandery: University of hypocrisy

University leaders are in a bind. “These protests are really dynamic situations that can change from minute to minute,” Stephen Solomon, who teaches First Amendment law and is the director of NYU’s First Amendment Watch—an organization devoted to free speech—told me. “But the obligation of universities is to make the distinction between speech protected by the First Amendment and speech that is not.” Some of the speech and tactics protesters are employing may not be protected under the First Amendment, while much of it plainly is. The challenge universities are confronting is not just the law but also their own rhetoric. Many universities at the center of the ongoing police crackdowns have long sought to portray themselves as bastions of activism and free thought. Cornell is one of many universities that champion their legacy of student activism when convenient, only to bring the hammer down on present-day activists when it’s not. The same colleges that appeal to students such as Wilson by promoting opportunities for engagement and activism are now suspending them. And they’re calling the cops.

The police activity we are seeing universities level against their own students does not just scuff the carefully cultivated progressive reputations of elite private universities such as Columbia, Emory University, and NYU, or the equally manicured free-speech bona fides of red-state public schools such as Indiana University and the University of Texas at Austin. It also exposes what these universities have become in the 21st century. Administrators have spent much of the recent past recruiting social-justice-minded students and faculty to their campuses under the implicit, and often explicit, promise that activism is not just welcome but encouraged. Now the leaders of those universities are shocked to find that their charges and employees believed them. And rather than try to understand their role in cultivating this morass, the Ivory Tower’s bigwigs have decided to apply their boot heels to the throats of those under their care.

I spoke with 30 students, professors, and administrators from eight schools—a mix of public and private institutions across the United States—to get a sense of the disconnect between these institutions’ marketing of activism and their treatment of protesters. A number of people asked to remain anonymous. Some were untenured faculty or administrators concerned about repercussions from, or for, their institutions. Others were directly involved in organizing protests and were wary of being harassed. Several incoming students I spoke with were worried about being punished by their school before they even arrived. Despite a variety of ideological commitments and often conflicting views on the protests, many of those I interviewed were “shocked but not surprised”—a phrase that came up time and again—by the hypocrisy exhibited by the universities with which they were affiliated. (I reached out to Columbia, NYU, Cornell, and Emory for comment on the disconnect between their championing of past protests and their crackdowns on the current protesters. Representatives from Columbia, Cornell, and Emory pointed me to previous public statements. NYU did not respond.)

The sense that Columbia trades on the legacy of the Vietnam protests that rocked campus in 1968 was widespread among the students I spoke with. Indeed, the university honors its activist past both directly and indirectly, through library archives , an online exhibit , an official “Columbia 1968” X account , no shortage of anniversary articles in Columbia Magazine, and a current course titled simply “Columbia 1968.” The university is sometimes referred to by alumni and aspirants as the “Protest Ivy.” One incoming student told me that he applied to the school in part because of an admissions page that prominently listed community organizers and activists among its “distinguished alumni.”

Joseph Slaughter, an English professor and the executive director of Columbia’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights, talked with his class about the 1968 protests after the recent arrests at the school. He said his students felt that the university had actively marketed its history to them. “Many, many, many of them said they were sold the story of 1968 as part of coming to Columbia,” he told me. “They talked about it as what the university presents to them as the long history and tradition of student activism. They described it as part of the brand.”

This message reaches students before they take their first college class. As pro-Palestine demonstrations began to raise tensions on campus last month, administrators were keen to cast these protests as part of Columbia’s proud culture of student activism. The aforementioned high-school senior who had been impressed by Columbia’s activist alumni attended the university’s admitted-students weekend just days before the April 18 NYPD roundup. During the event, the student said, an admissions official warned attendees that they may experience “disruptions” during their visit, but boasted that these were simply part of the school’s “long and robust history of student protest.”

Remarkably, after more than 100 students were arrested on the order of Columbia President Minouche Shafik—in which she overruled a unanimous vote by the university senate’s executive committee not to bring the NYPD to campus —university administrators were still pushing this message to new students and parents. An email sent on April 19 informed incoming students that “demonstration, political activism, and deep respect for freedom of expression have long been part of the fabric of our campus.” Another email sent on April 20 again promoted Columbia’s tradition of activism, protest, and support of free speech. “This can sometimes create moments of tension,” the email read, “but the rich dialogue and debate that accompany this tradition is central to our educational experience.”

Evelyn Douek and Genevieve Lakier: The hypocrisy underlying the campus-speech controversy

Another student who attended a different event for admitted students, this one on April 21, said that every administrator she heard speak paid lip service to the school’s long history of protest. Her own feelings about the pro-Palestine protests were mixed—she said she believes that a genocide is happening in Gaza and also that some elements of the protest are plainly anti-Semitic—but her feelings about Columbia’s decision to involve the police were unambiguous. “It’s reprehensible but exactly what an Ivy League institution would do in this situation. I don’t know why everyone is shocked,” she said, adding: “It makes me terrified to go there.”

Beth Massey, a veteran activist who participated in the 1968 protests, told me with a laugh, “They might want to tell us they’re progressive, but they’re doing the business of the ruling class.” She was not surprised by the harsh response to the current student encampment or by the fact that it lit the fuse on a nationwide protest movement. Massey had been drawn to the radical reputation of Columbia’s sister school, Barnard College, as an open-minded teenager from the segregated South: “I actually wanted to go to Barnard because they had a history of progressive struggle that had happened going all the way back into the ’40s.” And the barn-burning history that appealed to Massey in the late 1960s has continued to attract contemporary students, albeit with one key difference: Today, that radical history has become part of the way that Barnard and Columbia sell their $60,000-plus annual tuition.

Of course, Columbia is not alone. The same trends have also prevailed at NYU, which likes to crow about its own radical history and promises contemporary students “ a world of activism opportunities .” An article published on the university’s website in March—titled “Make a Difference Through Activism at NYU”—promises students “myriad chances to put your activism into action.” The article points to campus institutions that “provide students with resources and opportunities to spark activism and change both on campus and beyond.” The six years I spent as a graduate student at NYU gave me plenty of reasons to be cynical about the university and taught me to view all of this empty activism prattle as white noise. But even I was astounded to see a video of students and faculty set upon by the NYPD, arrested at the behest of President Linda Mills.

“Across the board, there is a heightened awareness of hypocrisy,” Mohamad Bazzi, a journalism professor at NYU, told me, noting that faculty were acutely conscious of the gap between the institution’s intensive commitment to DEI and the police crackdown. The university has recently made several “cluster hires”—centered on activism-oriented themes such as anti-racism, social justice, and indigeneity—that helped diversify the faculty. Some of those recent hires were among the people who spent a night zip-tied in a jail cell, arrested for the exact kind of activism that had made them attractive to NYU in the first place. And it wasn’t just faculty. The law students I spoke with were especially acerbic. After honing her activism skills at her undergraduate institution—another university that recently saw a violent police response to pro-Palestine protests—one law student said she came to NYU because she was drawn to its progressive reputation and its high percentage of prison-abolitionist faculty. This irony was not lost on her as the police descended on the encampment.

After Columbia students were arrested on April 18, students at NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study decided to cancel a planned art festival and instead use the time to make sandwiches as jail support for their detained uptown peers. The school took photos of the students layering cold cuts on bread and posted it to Gallatin’s official Instagram. These posts not only failed to mention that the students were working in support of the pro-Palestine protesters; the caption—“making sandwiches for those in need”—implied that the undergrads might be preparing meals for, say, the homeless.

The contradictions on display at Cornell, Columbia, and NYU are not limited to the state of New York. The police response at Emory, another university that brags about its tradition of student protest, was among the most disturbing I have seen. Faculty members I spoke with at the Atlanta school, including two who had been arrested—the philosophy professor Noëlle McAfee and the English and Indigenous-studies professor Emil’ Keme—recounted harrowing scenes: a student being knocked down, an elderly woman struggling to breathe after tear-gas exposure, a colleague with welts from rubber bullets. These images sharply contrast with the university’s progressive mythmaking, a process that was in place even before 2020’s “summer of racial reckoning” sent universities scrambling to shore up their activist credentials.

In 2018, Emory’s Campus Life office partnered with students and a design studio to begin work on an exhibit celebrating the university’s history of identity-based activism. Then, not long after George Floyd’s murder, the university’s library released a series of blog posts focusing on topics including “Black Student Activism at Emory,” “Protests and Movements,” “Voting Rights and Public Policy,” and “Authors and Artists as Activists.” That same year, the university announced its new Arts and Social Justice Fellows initiative, a program that “brings Atlanta artists into Emory classrooms to help students translate their learning into creative activism in the name of social justice.” In 2021, the university put on an exhibit celebrating its 1969 protests , in which “Black students marched, demonstrated, picketed, and ‘rapped’ on those institutions affecting the lives of workers and students at Emory.” Like Cornell’s and Columbia’s, Emory’s protests seem to age like fine wine: It takes half a century before the institution begins enjoying them.

N early every person I talked with believed that their universities’ responses were driven by donors, alumni, politicians, or some combination thereof. They did not believe that they were grounded in serious or reasonable concerns about the physical safety of students; in fact, most felt strongly that introducing police into the equation had made things far more dangerous for both pro-Palestine protesters and pro-Israel counterprotesters. Jeremi Suri, a historian at UT Austin—who told me he is not politically aligned with the protesters—recalls pleading with both the dean of students and the mounted state troopers to call off the charge. “It was like the Russian army had come onto campus,” Suri mused. “I was out there for 45 minutes to an hour. I’m very sensitive to anti-Semitism. Nothing anti-Semitic was said.” He added: “There was no reason not to let them shout until their voices went out.”

From the May 1930 issue: Hypocrisy–a defense

As one experienced senior administrator at a major research university told me, the conflagration we are witnessing shows how little many university presidents understand either their campus communities or the young people who populate them. “When I saw what Columbia was doing, my immediate thought was: They have not thought about day two ,” he said, laughing. “If you confront an 18-year-old activist, they don’t back down. They double down.” That’s what happened in 1968, and it’s happening again now. Early Tuesday morning, Columbia students occupied Hamilton Hall—the site of the 1968 occupation, which they rechristened Hind’s Hall in honor of a 6-year-old Palestinian girl killed in Gaza—in response to the university’s draconian handling of the protests. They explicitly tied these events to the university’s past, calling out its hypocrisy on Instagram: “This escalation is in line with the historical student movements of 1968 … which Columbia repressed then and celebrates today.” The university, for its part, responded now as it did then: Late on Tuesday, the NYPD swarmed the campus in an overnight raid that led to the arrest of dozens of students.

The students, professors, and administrators I’ve spoken with in recent days have made clear that this hypocrisy has not gone unnoticed and that the crackdown isn’t working, but making things worse. The campus resistance has expanded to include faculty and students who were originally more ambivalent about the protests and, in a number of cases, who support Israel. They are disturbed by what they rightly see as violations of free expression, the erosion of faculty governance, and the overreach of administrators. Above all, they’re fed up with the incandescent hypocrisy of institutions, hoisted with their own progressive petards, as the unstoppable force of years’ worth of self-righteous rhetoric and pseudo-radical posturing meets the immovable object of students who took them at their word.

In another video published by The Cornell Daily Sun , recorded only hours after he was suspended, Nick Wilson explained to a crowd of student protesters what had brought him to the school. “In high school, I discovered my passion, which was community organizing for a better world. I told Cornell University that’s why I wanted to be here,” he said, referencing his college essay. Then he paused for emphasis, looking around as his peers began to cheer. “And those fuckers admitted me.”

How to Watch Joe Biden's 2024 White House Correspondents' Dinner Speech

P resident Joe Biden is slated to deliver remarks at the White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA) dinner on Saturday before a crowd of journalists, celebrities and politicians as protesters have vowed to gather outside the event.

The Context

Outside the dinner site, protesters have pledged to rally against Israel continuing its war in Gaza. The conflict began after the Palestinian militant group Hamas launched an attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, that left 1,200 people dead and saw over 200 more taken hostage.

In the nearly seven months of war, the Palestinian death toll has surpassed 34,000, with more than 76,000 wounded, according to the Associated Press, per the Gaza Health Ministry. While the Hamas-run ministry does not differentiate between combatants and civilians in their count, it says at least two-thirds have been children and women.

The staggering number of Palestinian deaths has ignited international criticism that has led to protests across the globe. The death toll and distressing images of children dead in the rubble of bombed buildings resulted in mounting calls for a ceasefire and increased pressure on Biden to take a tougher line on Israel, a longtime U.S. ally.

What We Know

Comedian Colin Jost, known for his role on Saturday Night Live , is expected to deliver humorous jabs at the president and other politicians during the annual event at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C.

The WHCA hosts the black-tie event that usually features the sitting president and popular comedians mocking politicians and current events. In previous years, Biden has used the dinner to mock his political rivals, notably former President Donald Trump .

The dinner will air online on C-SPAN's website beginning at 8 p.m. EST and can also be viewed on C-SPAN's YouTube channel as well C-SPAN's TV channel.

Newsweek reached out via email on Saturday to representatives for the White House for comment.

More than two dozen journalists in Gaza recently wrote a letter published by Medium that urged members of the press corps to boycott the historic event.

"As Palestinian journalists, we urgently appeal to you, our colleagues globally, with a demand for immediate and unwavering action against the Biden administration's ongoing complicity in the systematic slaughter and persecution of journalists in Gaza," the letter states. "We insist you publicly boycott the upcoming White House Correspondents' Dinner on April 27 as an act of solidarity with us — your fellow journalists — as well as with the millions of Palestinians currently being starved in Gaza due to the Biden administration's continued political, financial, and military backing of Israel and cut-off of funding for live-saving humanitarian aid."

Photos captured before the event began showed dozens of protesters trying to block guests outside of the venue.

In an interview with Sirius XM radio host Howard Stern on Friday, Biden said he planned to emphasize the importance of a free press during his WHCA dinner speech.

The president also told Stern that the media is not hard enough on Trump, the presumed 2024 GOP presidential nominee, saying: "I think some of them are worried about attacking him, worried about taking him on."

What's Next?

The WHCA dinner begins at 8 p.m. Biden is expected to deliver remarks around 10 p.m. and will be aired online.

Update 4/27/24, 6:18 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information and background.

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Campus Protests Aren’t Going Away. Colleges Need to Draw Lines.

By David French and Sarah Wildman

Produced by Vishakha Darbha and Jillian Weinberger

Student protests across the country continue to escalate, leading to mass arrests and police action.

In this conversation with politics editor Sarah Wildman, the Times Opinion columnist David French argues that while free speech needs to be upheld and even encouraged on campuses, there’s a line between civil disobedience and lawlessness, and universities need to clearly articulate where that line is.

Below is a lightly edited transcript of the audio piece. To listen to this piece, click the play button below.

Sarah Wildman: I’m Sarah Wildman , a staff editor and writer for Times Opinion.

Newsreel: (Protest chants)

Campus protests and rallies have been percolating since Oct. 8, but in the past week, something shifted.

Newsreel: New York City police used force last night to zip-tie the hands of dozens of student protests and hauled them away in buses. Newsreel: Protests against Israel’s assault on Gaza have rocked campuses from coast to coast over the past week. Newsreel: The ongoing demonstrations have stirred debate about the line between free speech for the protesters and open harassment of Jewish students.

Sarah Wildman: It seems on and off campus, the idea of what kind of protest should and should not be allowed is an open question. So I wanted to talk to my colleague David French . He recently wrote about this dilemma and what universities should be doing.

David is an opinion columnist. He’s a lawyer who spent most of his career defending free speech and religious freedom. He’s defended countless protesters, and he has been the subject of protest himself.

David, thank you so much for joining me.

David French: Well, thanks so much for having me, Sarah.

Sarah Wildman: In your recent column , you note that universities are meant to be the “sponsor of critics … not … the critic.” What does that mean?

David French: Schools that are bound by the First Amendment or adopt First Amendment-like principles as many private universities do should be neutral towards the expression of the protesters on campus.

They should be focused on granting equal access, equal rights to various sides of campus disputes. And one of the dangers you see with many of these encampments is their very existence crowds out other voices, and that’s one of the reasons why universities have implemented “time, place and manner restrictions” so that everyone has equal access to the quad, for example, or everyone has equal access to the public forums on campus.

Sarah Wildman: Does that mean you would support forcibly removing the encampments?

David French: Well, there are circumstances in which removing the encampments is necessary to ensure equal access to campus. These are legal responsibilities that the university has.

For example, if one set of students are occupying part of the campus that is normally open to other students as well, and other students are seeking to use that — as they have a right to do under the law — if the university is allowing the encampment to maintain, it can actually be violating the law itself.

Then if the encampment becomes a home of, for example, some vicious antisemitic speech, then it starts to get into the neighborhood of potential civil rights violations. And so, in some circumstances, I don’t think the law gives them much choice but to remove some of these encampments.

Sarah Wildman: Before we go deeper into this moment and the specificities of what’s happening on campuses across the country, I wanted you to take us back to your first experience with campus protest.

David French: Absolutely. It was my first year of law school. I went to a small Christian college in Nashville. And although a lot of my classmates had a lot of political feelings, it was just not a culture given to protest at all. And so I had never encountered it.

And I remember I’m studying in one of my first weeks of law school and I heard drums outside and I had no idea why. And I went out and I saw my first campus protest. It was a protest over faculty diversity at Harvard Law School in 1991. This was an issue that had really divided the campus. I watched a group of students get together and have a pretty raucous protest in front of our library, lots of angry speeches. There was dancing, there was chanting, there was drumming. People were angry, but it was all clearly just a free speech activity. It was all quite clearly exactly the kind of conduct that would be encompassed by the First Amendment.

And I remember being fascinated by it all and interested in quite a few of the campus protests. But they also took a much darker turn at times where the protests would get more aggressive, that protest movements would extend to the classroom to the extent that you would shout down other students to prevent them from being heard. There were disruptive occupations of the administration building.

So I saw the good, the bad and the ugly of campus protesting during my time in law school. And that experience helped launch my free speech career.

Sarah Wildman: In your most recent column, you identify the moment we’re in as one of lawlessness versus civil disobedience. That, to me, seems pretty gray. How are we defining lawlessness versus civil disobedience?

David French: One of the elements of civil disobedience is the person who participates in the act of civil disobedience accepts the consequences of the act.

In other words, things like we saw at Columbia, where people are trying to block access to the police that are trying to clear an encampment that is no longer lawful, or when you are masking and covering your face and perhaps breaking into buildings or blocking access so that students cannot go to classes — when civil disobedience starts to interfere with the rights of others, it is transgressing the bounds. When individuals are refusing to accept the consequences of breaking the law, it is transgressing the bounds.

So civil disobedience is not a license to do what I want, to whom and however I want, as long as it’s for a good cause. That’s not what civil disobedience is.

Sarah Wildman: It seems to me, though, that protests throughout time and certainly within the last 50 years of American history have often had the goal to disrupt. How does that fit into an idea of civility as you describe it?

David French: What I go back to when I think about protests — that is destructive versus protest that is constructive — is protests should not violate other people’s rights. When you’re violating other people’s rights through your protest, you are crossing red lines at that point.

And what I have seen many people do is, if they have sympathy for the underlying cause that the protesters are pursuing, they’ll often make a lot of excuses for the violation of other people’s rights. They’re more sympathetic to it.

But then if they strongly disagree with that cause, then they’re able to see with quite extreme clarity how much that protest is destructive and disruptive. And so one thing that I would ask people to do when they’re evaluating protests is immediately ask, how would you react to that protest if it was coming from somebody with whom you had strong disagreements? Would you see this as constructive, or would you see this as extremely destructive?

I prefer to take a wider look and say, “Is this protest violating other people’s rights?” And if so, it is this responsibility of the government to ensure that we all can exercise our rights.

Sarah Wildman: Are the lines drawn differently when protest is so closely aligned with student identities? You’ve mentioned antisemitism. We haven’t really dug in on why you have. Does it change the nature of how we see this protest if it’s aligned with specific student identities?

David French: So there are really two separate sort of legal strands here. One is, are there identity-based attacks on Jewish students on campus to such an extent that it arises to the level of harassment under federal law, is one set of questions.

Then there’s another set of questions that says, does occupying this quad, does the nature, the time, or the place or the manner of the protest that I’m engaged in, is it actually violating the free expression rights or the equal access rights of other students, regardless of their identity?

So, identity does matter as a matter of federal law, but when it comes to First Amendment analysis, it doesn’t matter as much.

Sarah Wildman: Is this about a failure of control?

David French: Well, it’s about a failure to enforce reasonable time, place and manner restrictions. I don’t know if you would call that control so much as rule of law.

The reasonable time, place and manner restrictions are designed to allow all members of a community to have the same rights within the community. And so, one of the problems that you have is a lot of campus administrators don’t want to do the hard thing. And so they hope the problem goes away, but it doesn’t. It becomes a much harder thing and then a much harder thing until it becomes almost an impossible thing to deal with.

Whereas by taking decisive action early when you see the first violations of these time, place and manner restrictions, you can prevent a problem from escalating to the extent that we’ve seen at Columbia and other schools.

Sarah Wildman: You mentioned Columbia — there you’re seeing some professors outwardly supporting, speaking out about, even protesting themselves, and the administration seen as suppressing. Does that tension create chaos?

David French: The university members of the faculty, they have their own academic freedom rights. They have their own free speech rights. But they also have their own legal obligations, both as members of the community and members of the faculty. And so, one of the things you want to protect when you are talking about free speech on campus is faculty free speech on campus. But if faculty engages in civil disobedience, it should accept the consequences. If faculty participates in protest that violates the rights of others, then it should accept the consequences of that as well.

Sarah Wildman: This goes back to this question of what a university’s role should be in campus activism. I was thinking about this in terms of words like neutral, supportive, incorporating, even promoting activism in some way. Is there a role the university plays other than providing a forum where both sides or many sides can discuss?

David French: Universities have their own institutional academic freedom. So a university does have the academic freedom to say, “OK, we’re going to fly a Palestinian flag. We’re going to condemn Israel’s incursion into Gaza.” A university institutionally can engage in boycotts and divestment. But if they take a single dime of federal dollars, they cannot refuse to protect any identity group from harassment covered by federal anti-discrimination law.

Sarah Wildman: You wrap up your piece by noting that the issues aren’t going away.

David French: No.

Sarah Wildman: And next fall, we may, unfortunately, still be seeing conflict in the Middle East. What’s the best-case scenario for campuses going forward?

David French: I think that a lot of campus administrators need to read some of the statements that I have seen come out of, for example, University of Chicago, where lines are clearly drawn: We will protect free speech. We will permit all voices to protest. We will protect faculty academic freedom. But the instant that your protest violates the rights of others is when it is too far. That language has to be clearly, clearly communicated from Day 1 of the fall semester, and then the university has to walk the talk.

So when the encampments come up, the message has to be “Zero disruptions are permitted, discipline will commence.” And that kind of approach, you’re protecting the rights of free speech, but you’re also protecting the rights of others to access the campus.

Sarah Wildman: David, thank you so much for joining us today.

David French: Thanks so much, Sarah. Really appreciated the conversation.

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected] .

This episode of “The Opinions” was produced by Vishakha Darbha and Jillian Weinberger. It was edited by Alison Bruzek and Kaari Pitkin. Mixing and original music by Sonia Herrero. Fact-checking by Mary Marge Locker. Audience strategy by Kristina Samulewski and Shannon Busta.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here’s our email: [email protected] .

Follow the New York Times Opinion section on Facebook , Instagram , TikTok , WhatsApp , X and Threads .

David French is an Opinion columnist, writing about law, culture, religion and armed conflict. He is a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom and a former constitutional litigator. His most recent book is “Divided We Fall: America’s Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation .” You can follow him on Threads ( @davidfrenchjag ).

Synonyms of talk

• as in speech
• as in discussion
• as in rumor
• as in to speak
• as in to chat
• as in to say
• as in to inform
• as in to gossip
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Thesaurus Definition of talk

 (Entry 1 of 2)

Synonyms & Similar Words

• declamation
• presentation
• keynote address
• keynote speech
• consultation
• conversation
• argumentation
• deliberation
• back - and - forth
• confabulation
• give - and - take
• consultancy
• negotiation
• bull session
• skull practice
• skull session
• disquisition
• tête - à - tête
• scuttlebutt
• disinformation
• urban legend

Thesaurus Definition of talk  (Entry 2 of 2)

• take the floor
• soliloquize
• pontificate
• shoot the breeze
• chew the rag

talk a blue streak

• chew the fat
• put into words
• pipe up (with)

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

• drop a dime (on)
• double - cross
• spill the beans
• noise (about or abroad)
• bandy (about)

Phrases Containing talk

• talk (into)
• talk down (to)

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Cite this entry.

“Talk.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/talk. Accessed 4 May. 2024.

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