speaker

Meaning

Noun

• One who speaks.
• Loudspeaker.
• Speakerphone.
• The chair or presiding officer of certain legislative bodies, such as the U.K. House of Commons or the U.S. House of Representatives.
• One who makes a speech to an audience.
• A book containing passages of text for use in speeches.
• The producer of a given utterance, whether speech or text.
• A key on a woodwind instrument of the clarinet family (cf octave key on other instruments) which induces the instrument to overblow.

Related

Similar words

• talker

Origin

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