SPEAK

Where it comes from

From Middle English speke, speken (“to speak”), from Old English specan (“to speak”). This is usually taken to be an irregular alteration of earlier sprecan, spreocan (“to speak”), from Proto-West Germanic *sprekan, from Proto-Germanic *sprekaną (“to speak, make a sound”), from Proto-Indo-European *spreg- (“to make a sound, utter, speak”). Finding this proposed loss of r from the stable cluster spr unparalleled, Hill instead sets up a different root, Proto-West Germanic *spekan (“to negotiate”) from Proto-Indo-European *bʰégʾ-e- (“to distribute”) with *s-mobile, which collapsed in meaning with *sprekan ("to speak" < "to crackle, prattle") and so came to be seen as a free variant thereof. Cognate with Scots speak, speik (“to speak”), Saterland Frisian spreke (“to speak”), West Frisian sprekke (“to speak”), Central Franconian sjprèche (“to speak”), Dutch and Low German spreken (“to speak”), German sprechen (“to speak”), Luxembourgish spriechen (“to speak”), and also with Albanian shpreh (“to express, manifest, show”) through Indo-European.

Etymology via Wiktionary (CC BY-SA).

SPEAK in OUTLIER

Players have found it on 8 boards so far. 19 players have found it across Outlier's history.

It first turned up on Day 7, 28 May 2026. The most recent board was Day 97, 25 August 2026. Nobody has seen it on a board for 5 days.

First found by a player on Day 7, 28 May 2026.

Built from these letters

SPEAK starts with S and ends with K. Sorted, its letters read AEKPS - the shape to hunt for when the grid is scrambled. No letter is used twice, which makes it an isogram.

Same letters, different word

2 other words use exactly these letters. Worth knowing at the board: an anagram fits a grid the same way.

Words that start SPEAK

Its neighbours in the OUTLIER dictionary - shortest first.

Also seen on Day 7