bespeak
Americanverb (used with object)
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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
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
Following the paradigm established by writers like Ottessa Moshfegh and Catherine Lacey, these latest heroines bespeak a literary era that’s swung past genial pessimism into repulsion.
From New York Times ● Apr. 25, 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
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
The film can hardly avoid being described as “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” meets “Enemy of the State,” and that such comparisons are so obvious bespeaks a certain lack of originality.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026
But his many TV roles are marked by a sense of implacable stillness that bespeaks the maturity that comes from a long career.
From New York Times ● Dec. 30, 2022
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
The fact that this surprises me only bespeaks the depths of my ignorance.
From "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris
With that bespake the seven brethren, Making most piteous moan: 'You may go kiss your jolly brown bride, And let our sister alone.'
From The Romantic Scottish Ballads: Their Epoch and Authorship by Chambers, Robert W. (Robert William)
And then bespake him noble King Arthur, These were the words said hee: "I doe not know that comly King, 85 But once my selfe I did him see."
From English and Scottish Ballads, Volume I (of 8) by Various
And then bespake Sir Bredbeddle, And these were the words said he: "Why, I will wrestle with yon lodly feend, God! my governor thou shalt bee."
From English and Scottish Ballads, Volume I (of 8) by Various
Thus, full attired In all her ornaments, she issued forth, And beck'ning Venus from the other pow'rs Of Heav'n apart, the Goddess thus bespake: 'Daughter, beloved!
From The Life and Writings of Henry Fuseli, Volume I (of 3) by Knowles, John
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
The northern half of Scotland would have been left with no bespoke coverage whatsoever.
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026
The bitcoin hoarder created a bespoke valuation metric that ignores market realities.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026
Charvet has been making bespoke shirts and suits from its home on Place Vendome in Paris since 1838, with past clients including Winston Churchill, John F. Kennedy and Chanel founder Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel.
From Barron's ● Jul. 2, 2026
It turns out “The Life of a Showgirl” involves a wedding fit for a princess, complete with a bespoke castle built inside Madison Square Garden — at least according to reports.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026
He introduced Bobby to his tailor in the Little Hungary section of Manhattan so that the teenager could have some bespoke suits made.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
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
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
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
We are informed, by our fashionable reporter, that a suite of apartments on the first floor have just been bespoken at Mivart's Hotel for the Emperor of China.
From Punch - Volume 25 (Jul-Dec 1853) by Various
Roy had made her acquainted with his excellences as well as his peculiarities, and bespoken for him a worthy place in her regard.
From Jessamine A Novel by Harland, Marion
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.
