speech

n.

1. Language

   tongue, mother tongue, native tongue; see language 1.

2. The power of audible expression

   talk, utterance, discourse, conversation, articulation, oral expression, diction, pronunciation, expression, locution, vocalization, enunciation, palaver, communication, prattle, parlance, intercourse, chatter.

3. An address

   lecture, discourse, oration, address, disquisition, harangue, oratory, sermon, dissertation, homily, recitation, prelection, allocation, talk, rhetoric, tirade, panegyric, bombast, diatribe, exhortation, eulogy, commentary, declamation, appeal, invocation, salutation, travelogue, valedictory, paper, stump, keynote address, political speech, speechification*, elocuting*, opus*, pep talk*, spiel*; see also communication 2.

speech is the general word for a discourse delivered to an audience, whether prepared or impromptu; address implies a formal, carefully prepared speech and usually attributes importance to the speaker or the speech an address to a legislature; oration suggests an eloquent, rhetorical, sometimes merely bombastic speech, esp. one delivered on some special occasion political orations; a lecture is a carefully prepared speech intended to inform or instruct the audience a lecture to a college class; talk suggests informality and is applied either to an impromptu speech or to an address or lecture in which the speaker deliberately uses a simple, conversational approach; a sermon is a speech by a clergyman intended to give religious or moral instruction and usually based on Scriptural text