declaim
Americanverb (used without object)
-
to speak aloud in an oratorical manner; make a formal speech.
Brutus declaimed from the steps of the Roman senate building.
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to inveigh (usually followed byagainst ).
He declaimed against the high rents in slums.
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to speak or write for oratorical effect, as without sincerity or sound argument.
verb (used with object)
verb
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to make (a speech, statement, etc) loudly and in a rhetorical manner
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to speak lines from (a play, poem, etc) with studied eloquence; recite
-
to protest (against) loudly and publicly
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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declaimsimple
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declaimssimple
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have declaimedperfect
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has declaimedperfect
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am declaimingprogressive
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are declaimingprogressive
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is declaimingprogressive
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have been declaimingperfect progressive
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has been declaimingperfect progressive
Past
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declaimedsimple
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had declaimedperfect
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was declaimingprogressive
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were declaimingprogressive
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had been declaimingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of declaim
1350–1400; Middle English declamen < Latin dēclāmāre, equivalent to dē- de- + clāmāre to cry, shout; see claim
Explanation
Use the verb declaim when someone is speaking very passionately against something, like when you declaim against having to be home by 8 p.m. Declaim can also describe reciting words aloud for practice. If you're learning a new language, you might declaim a sentence until it sounds clear and natural when you say it. Declaim was originally spelled declame, similar to the Latin word declamare, meaning "to practice public speaking," but later became declaim as its other meaning came into greater use.
Vocabulary lists containing declaim
The Graveyard Book
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Crime and Punishment
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Pygmalion
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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:
Carlos J. Soto’s costumes hint at abstraction, rather than declaim distance as a goal.
From New York Times ● Jul. 29, 2022
Brook loved to declaim that he had no answers, because there are no answers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 26, 2022
“The folding type of this cooling device became accepted in China during the Ming dynasty,” Mr. Trebek might declaim, as competitors raced to buzz in with the reply, “What is a fan?”
From Washington Post ● Nov. 8, 2020
You may use this page to declaim loudly, recite verse, or pursue areas of freewheeling, off topic discourse.
From Slate ● Jun. 29, 2020
His douceurs were nought but such as an artillery marshal might declaim.
From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson
“I’ve been painting up for 25 years,” the 50-year-old declaims, his voice building into a steady rumble.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 19, 2023
Holley merges preaching and singing, as he declaims “I believe that the deeper we go, the more chances there are for us to understand.”
From New York Times ● Jan. 13, 2023
Of her own content creation, another character declaims, defensively, “It’s creative nonfiction, which is a valid response in an attention economy.”
From Washington Post ● Aug. 9, 2022
Plus, the critic in me is hard-pressed to resist a movie in which a character declaims whole paragraphs of Pauline Kael without explanation.
From Slate ● Dec. 26, 2020
“Fellow Dominicans!” he declaims in a grainy voice.
From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez
Because many colonists were illiterate, the Declaration was commonly declaimed by local officials in town squares and preachers in pulpits.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 3, 2026
As Weaver's Prospero declaimed "Come forth, I say," Hayley sprang from her seat and rushed the stage with Richard Weir, a 60-year-old mechanical engineer from Tyneside.
From BBC ● Mar. 28, 2025
“Oh Allah make it easy for them to reach there, and bless us with the death of a martyr,” he declaimed, his voice reverberating through the mosque’s loudspeakers.
From Washington Times ● Oct. 13, 2023
Like many, he once declaimed the rampant use of exclamation marks but later defended them, going so far as to make a case for the Interrobang.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2022
Threats to enlist that winter were always declaimed like Brinker’s, with a grinding of back teeth and a flashing of eyes; I had already heard plenty of them.
From "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles
With Richards’s gnarled, withering guitar lines and Jagger drawling and declaiming, there’s no mistaking the band behind “Foreign Tongues.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 6, 2026
In a totalitarian sci-fi world, a hammer thrown by a young athlete smashes a "Big Brother" figure declaiming to brainwashed citizens from a vast screen.
From Barron's ● Mar. 29, 2026
More often, though, Tallent demonstrates his characters’ precarity rather than declaiming about it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 20, 2026
We passed multiple radar speed signs, declaiming mph numbers, beseeching drivers to slow down.
From Slate ● Jun. 22, 2025
But whenever you hear bad poets declaiming their bad poetry, filled with foolish similes and ugly rhymes, you will know which of the meads they have tasted.
From "Norse Mythology" by Neil Gaiman
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.
