bespeak
Americanverb (used with object)
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bespeaks,
present (3rd person singular)
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bespoke,
past, past participle (Archaic)
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bespake,
past (Archaic)
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bespoken,
past participle
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bespeaking
present participle
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to ask for in advance.
to bespeak the reader's patience.
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to reserve beforehand; engage in advance; make arrangements for.
to bespeak a seat in a theater.
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Literary. to speak to; address.
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to show; indicate.
This bespeaks a kindly heart.
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Obsolete. to foretell; forebode.
verb
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to engage, request, or ask for in advance
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to indicate or suggest
this act bespeaks kindness
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poetic to speak to; address
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archaic to foretell
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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bespeaksimple
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bespeakssimple
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have bespokeperfect
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have bespokenperfect
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has bespokeperfect
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has bespokenperfect
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am bespeakingprogressive
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are bespeakingprogressive
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is bespeakingprogressive
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have been bespeakingperfect progressive
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has been bespeakingperfect progressive
Past
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bespakesimple
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bespokesimple
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had bespokeperfect
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had bespokenperfect
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was bespeakingprogressive
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were bespeakingprogressive
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had been bespeakingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of bespeak
before 900; Middle English bespeken, Old English besprecan. See be-, speak
Explanation
To bespeak is to imply or signal something, the way your neighbor's electric car might bespeak concern for the environment. You can use this verb to mean "indicate" or "convey indirectly." Your city's excellent schools and smooth, well-cared-for streets may bespeak high taxes to people who are considering buying a house there. Your interest in foreign films and philosophy might bespeak a deep intelligence and curiosity to your teachers. And if you're really paying attention, you'll realize your friend's crankiness bespeaks her fear of starting at a new school next fall.
Vocabulary lists containing bespeak
Inquire Within: Synoynms for "Ask"
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The Portrait of a Lady
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Reveal
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Whatever the validity of that charge, it doesn’t bespeak an administration indifferent to the fate of American political ideas abroad.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 26, 2026
In an age whose surplus — linguistic, economic — often seems to bespeak an underlying emptiness, is it possible for “a profound experience of art” still to mean something?
From New York Times ● Oct. 3, 2019
Personally I am devoted to Jake, his puppyish enthusiasm, his liveliness and fleetness of non-toxic banter which all bespeak a profound purity of soul.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 9, 2019
Robyn’s radical career moves bespeak that security; as a Canadian, I’ve seen how access to public health care alone widens artists’ range of choices.
From Slate ● Oct. 29, 2018
As his eyes met mine I was suddenly moved to bespeak him, to try to reach him with the mindspeech I had never used since I landed on Winter, and should not use, yet.
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
The sudden explosion of online sports betting bespeaks a nation of young men looking for ways to pocket cash for no work.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
Those who say they sleep well are a little bashful, as if their easy rest bespeaks a too-cosseted mind, a too-simple life.
From New York Times ● Jul. 8, 2023
“It bespeaks a really, really big misunderstanding,” she said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 27, 2023
“It creates debris all around. Most importantly, in a psychological sense, it bespeaks the fact that we can’t get basic services done, and that’s never a good message.”
From Washington Post ● Dec. 14, 2021
Fortified towns emerged in the third millennium B.C., with cemeteries whose great variation between unadorned and luxuriously furnished graves bespeaks emerging class differences.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
And then bespake him gentle Gawaine, Said, "Lady, thats but a skill; And because thou art my owne lady, 170 Thou shall haue all thy will."
From English and Scottish Ballads, Volume I (of 8) by Various
And then bespake Sir Bredbeddle, 265 To the feend these words said hee: Says, "I coniure thee, thou Burlow-beanie, The powder-box thou feitch me."
From English and Scottish Ballads, Volume I (of 8) by Various
Than bespake Lytell Johnn All untoo Robyn Hode: ‘Maister, and ye wolde dyne betyme It wolde doo you moche gode.’
From Ballads of Robin Hood and other Outlaws Popular Ballads of the Olden Times - Fourth Series by Sidgwick, Frank
Then bespake Cornwall King againe, These were the words said he.
From English and Scottish Ballads, Volume I (of 8) by Various
With that bespake the seven brethren, Making most piteous mone, "You may go kiss your jolly brown bride,55 And let our sister alone."
From English and Scottish Ballads, Volume II (of 8) by Various
Many Americans are going beyond the usual mass tours, adding bespoke experiences that connect them with locals.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
Compounding pharmacies, which mix bespoke drugs, are a loophole in the U.S. regulatory system.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
As construction risk recedes, these bonds could “look increasingly like secured, lease-backed extensions of hyperscaler credit rather than purely bespoke project financings,” Barclays credit analysts wrote in a recent note.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026
Even with a more bespoke training programme, Ramsay-Peaty cannot escape the hard facts.
From BBC ● Jul. 28, 2026
Thus designed, Morgan Stanley’s new bespoke credit default swap was virtually certain one day to pay off.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
Observers wondered if the 20,000 were more acutely bespoken by General Pershing and Commander Savage than they were by often-wounded Captain Jean Piot, a contributor to L'Oeuvre.
From Time Magazine Archive
The Pentagon's bespoken spokesman Ken Bacon is getting to be the harbinger of a lot of bad news about the Kosovo situation.
From Time Magazine Archive
Since one cannot bespeak until one has been bespoken, until the telepathic potentiality has been sensitized by one clear reception, I had to get through to him first.
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
"And by the way, I have bespoken a clear day for that especial occasion."
From The Coward A Novel of Society and the Field in 1863 by Morford, Henry
It was for this he had bespoken Wingate's skiff for the following day; for certain reasons reaching Llangorren at the earliest hour of dawn.
From Gwen Wynn by Reid, Mayne
Pratt was stout, compact and level-eyed, with a raspy drawl bespeaking his childhood on the Louisiana bayou.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 28, 2025
But when you know that he thought of his look as bespeaking a kind of weightlessness, you could also surmise that he knew the price of such flight might be life itself.
From New York Times ● Oct. 14, 2020
For one thing, some of it is very funny, as in a tableau positioning two porcelain figurines of colonial-era gentry before a regal, glowering jet-black face looming above them, their graceful postures bespeaking total incomprehension.
From New York Times ● Jan. 4, 2018
On one of my infrequent breaks from forcing myself not to knock the thing back in three gulps, I sought to give the drink a name bespeaking its virtues and dubbed it the Gimletti Punch.
From Slate ● Dec. 5, 2013
He heard my voice bespeaking him as a dead man’s, his brother’s voice.
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
