speaker

¹

[ spee-ker ]

noun

1. a person who speaks.
2. a person who speaks formally before an audience; lecturer; orator.
3. (usually initial capital letter) the presiding officer of the U.S. House of Representatives, the British House of Commons, or other such legislative assembly.
4. Also called loudspeaker. an electroacoustic device, often housed in a cabinet, that is connected as a component in an audio system, its function being to make speech or music audible.
5. a book of selections for practice in declamation.

Speaker

²

[ spee-ker ]

noun

1. Tris(tram E.), 1888–1958, U.S. baseball player.

speaker

¹

/ ˈspiːkə /

noun

1. a person who speaks, esp at a formal occasion
2. See loudspeaker

Speaker

²

/ ˈspiːkə /

noun

1. the presiding officer in any of numerous legislative bodies, including the House of Commons in Britain and Canada and the House of Representatives in the US, Australia, and New Zealand

Derived Forms

• ˈspeakership, noun

Other Words From

• speaker·ship noun
• non·speaker noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of speaker¹

Middle English word dating back to 1275–1325; speak, -er ¹

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. be / not be on speakers, British. speaking ( defs 9, 10 ).

Example Sentences

One speaker, a mother, said she was on the verge of being homeless again after timing out of the county’s shelters.

From Los Angeles Times

Good, who recently starred in Tyler Perry’s “Divorce in the Black,” unveiled her engagement to Majors nearly three years after she and DeVon Franklin, a producer, writer and motivational speaker, announced their divorce.

From Los Angeles Times

Marks had first come to his attention in 1973 when he got away with smuggling hash into the US by placing it into the speakers of British rock bands when they went there on tour.

From BBC

Mr Wood was one of the keynote speakers at Oxford City Council's ninth annual Fraud Conference.

From BBC

Ms. Rosenbury defended counting guest speakers as part-time faculty, saying it fell within A.B.A. standards because they were “practicing lawyers, judges and colloquium speakers” whose participation was integral to courses.

From New York Times