speak volumes

Idioms  

1. Be significant, indicate a great deal, as in That house of theirs speaks volumes about their income. This idiom uses volumes in the sense of “the information contained in volumes of books.” [c. 1800]

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

speak volumes

People can say anything, but their actions speak volumes.

From MarketWatch ● Jun. 8, 2026

And I think that that silence really does speak volumes.

From Slate ● Feb. 11, 2025

Co-producer of the film, Adam Strawford, said the film will "speak volumes to anyone who wasn't born in the UK and has had to adapt to life here".

From BBC ● Jan. 23, 2024

Failing to capitalize once more and finishing winless on the road trip would speak volumes.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 3, 2023

The modern cheerful town, thoroughly European in character, has within these few years rapidly attained large dimensions, and its numerous palatial structures speak volumes for the wealth and prosperity of the residents.

From Narrative of the Circumnavigation of the Globe by the Austrian Frigate Novara, Volume II (Commodore B. Von Wullerstorf-Urbair,) Undertaken by Order of the Imperial Government in the Years 1857, 1858, & 1859, Under the Immediate Auspices of His I. and R. Highness the Archduke Ferdinand Maximilian, Commander-In-Chief of the Austrian Navy. by Karl Ritter von Scherzer