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
I spake to Aina, saying, Aina yesterday I wishd you would bespeak an Owl for me.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
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
Their apartment, its walls lined with books and covered with movie posters, bespeaks a life happily devoted to artistic and intellectual pursuits.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 6, 2022
“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
But there is also an underrecognized Nicholsonian edge, a darkness, to many of his roles, which perhaps bespeaks the relish with which he offered his impression.
From New York Times ● Jul. 27, 2021
The fact that this surprises me only bespeaks the depths of my ignorance.
From "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris
Then bespake good Gilbert, And thus he 'gan say, "Master," he said, "your tackle is lost, Stand forth and take your pay!"
From Fifteenth Century Prose and Verse by Various
Just at the holy churchyard bold Hagan bade them stand, And keep all well together, and thus bespake the crew.
From The Nibelungenlied Revised Edition by Unknown
The ferryman wax'd furious when Hagan there he found; Thus he bespake the hero, and speaking darkly frown'd.
From The Nibelungenlied Revised Edition by Unknown
Then bespake him Cornewall King, These were the words he said there: 80 "Did you ever know a comely King, His name was King Arthur?"
From English and Scottish Ballads, Volume I (of 8) by Various
And then bespake him King Arthur, "Alas! thou gentle knight, how may this be, That I might see him in the same licknesse, That he stood unto thee?"
From English and Scottish Ballads, Volume I (of 8) by Various
The tech roll-up relies on aggressive price hikes and bespoke metrics.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 11, 2026
"Neighbouring towns have bespoke clubs and clubhouses and facilities and it's a pity that a city the size of Derry doesn't have such a facility of its own," Bloomfield said.
From BBC ● Sep. 9, 2026
Lawmakers acknowledged that the legislation is just a start, and that it is increasingly difficult for public officials to detect bespoke letters, deepfake videos or other kinds of engagement powered by AI.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026
It set out to use mRNA technology to make custom-designed cancer vaccines: A person’s tumor would be genetically sequenced—the process of finding mutations—and the company would make bespoke therapeutic vaccines to stimulate the immune system.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 22, 2026
With his fierce, frightened gaze on me I bespoke him: “Therem, my friend, there’s nothing to fear between us.”
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
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
She would have become again only another piece of jewelry in a shop-window—beautiful, but not for him; beautiful, but already bespoken.
From What Will People Say? A novel by Rupert Hughes
Lion" had as good as bespoken; he was so happy thus constantly occupied that he often thought—"I don't care to marry, and I cannot.
From Joseph in the Snow, and The Clockmaker In Three Volumes. Vol. II. by Berthold Auerbach
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
Therem the younger son; Arek the elder, that brother whose voice he had heard in mine bespeaking him; both dead now.
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.
