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

People can say anything, but their actions speak volumes.

From MarketWatch • Jun. 8, 2026

"It happened without any prior warning. Pictures speak volumes."

From BBC • Jun. 2, 2026

And I think that that silence really does speak volumes.

From Slate • Feb. 11, 2025

“You can speak volumes about the stadium and just the crowd that came out to support the city. I wish I was playing.”

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 26, 2024

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 Scherzer, Karl Ritter von