What's the difference between speak and understand?

Speak


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To utter words or articulate sounds, as human beings; to express thoughts by words; as, the organs may be so obstructed that a man may not be able to speak.
  • (v. i.) To express opinions; to say; to talk; to converse.
  • (v. i.) To utter a speech, discourse, or harangue; to adress a public assembly formally.
  • (v. i.) To discourse; to make mention; to tell.
  • (v. i.) To give sound; to sound.
  • (v. i.) To convey sentiments, ideas, or intelligence as if by utterance; as, features that speak of self-will.
  • (v. t.) To utter with the mouth; to pronounce; to utter articulately, as human beings.
  • (v. t.) To utter in a word or words; to say; to tell; to declare orally; as, to speak the truth; to speak sense.
  • (v. t.) To declare; to proclaim; to publish; to make known; to exhibit; to express in any way.
  • (v. t.) To talk or converse in; to utter or pronounce, as in conversation; as, to speak Latin.
  • (v. t.) To address; to accost; to speak to.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) But when he speaks, the crowds who have come together to make a stand against government corruption and soaring fuel prices cheer wildly.
  • (2) Whittingdale also defended the right of MPs to use privilege to speak out on public interest matters.
  • (3) The cause has been innumerable "VIP movements", as journeys undertaken by those considered important enough for all other traffic to be held up, sometimes for hours, are described in South Asian bureaucratic speak.
  • (4) Many speak about how yoga and surfing complement each other, both involving deep concentration, flexibility and balance.
  • (5) Speaking to pro-market thinktank Reform, Milburn called for “more competition” and said the shadow health team were making a “fundamental political misjudgment” by attempting to roll back policies he had overseen.
  • (6) Speaking to a handpicked audience of community representatives, the prime minister said he had not allowed the EU to get its way.
  • (7) Technically speaking, this modality of brief psychotherapy is based on the nonuse of transferential interpretations, on impeding the regression od the patient, on facilitating a cognitice-affective development of his conflicts and thus obtain an internal object mutation which allows the transformation of the "past" into true history, and the "present" into vital perspectives.
  • (8) The distribution of cells at the stage of DNA synthesis and mitosis in all the parietal peritoneum speaks of the absence of special proliferation zones.
  • (9) Again, the boys in care that he abused now speak to us as broken adults.
  • (10) It’s the same story over and over.” Children’s author Philip Ardagh , who told the room he once worked as an “unprofessional librarian” in Lewisham, said: “Closing down a library is like filing off the end of a swordfish’s nose: pointless.” 'Speak up before there's nothing left': authors rally for National Libraries Day Read more “Today proves that support for public libraries comes from all walks of life and it’s not rocket science to work out why.
  • (11) Speaking in the BBC's Radio Theatre, Hall will emphasise the need for a better, simpler BBC, as part of efforts to streamline management.
  • (12) The ability to demonstrate selective augmentation of the functional matrix-associated receptor population, and our recent results showing that gonadotropes are indeed the responsive cells (Singh P, Muldoon TG, unpublished observations) speak to the specificity and relevance of these findings.
  • (13) Clare Gills, an American journalist and friend of Foley, wrote in 2013: “He is always striving to get to the next place, to get closer to what is really happening, and to understand what moves the people he’s speaking with.
  • (14) There is a certain degree of swagger, a sudden interruption of panache, as Alan Moore enters the rather sterile Waterstones office where he has agreed to speak to me.
  • (15) The debate certainly hit upon a larger issue: the tendency for people in positions of social and cultural power to tell the stories of minorities for them, rather than allowing minority communities to speak for themselves.
  • (16) Speaking to reporters at the Pentagon, People's Liberation Army's chief of the general staff Gen Fang Fenghui also warned that the US must be objective about tensions between China and Vietnam or risk harming relations between Washington and Beijing.
  • (17) Speaking at The Carbon Show in London today, Philippe Chauvancy, director at climate exchange BlueNext, said that the announcement last week that it is to develop China's first standard for voluntary emission reduction projects alongside the government-backed China Beijing Environmental Exchange, could lay the foundations for a voluntary cap-and-trade scheme.
  • (18) "There were around 50 attackers, heavily armed in three vehicles, and they were flying the Shebab flag," Maisori added, speaking from the town, where several buildings including hotels, restaurants, banks and government offices were razed to the ground.
  • (19) Maryam Namazie, an Iranian-born campaigner against religious laws, had been invited to speak to the Warwick Atheists, Secularists and Humanists Society next month.
  • (20) A doctor the Guardian later speaks to insists it makes no sense.

Understand


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To have just and adequate ideas of; to apprehended the meaning or intention of; to have knowledge of; to comprehend; to know; as, to understand a problem in Euclid; to understand a proposition or a declaration; the court understands the advocate or his argument; to understand the sacred oracles; to understand a nod or a wink.
  • (v. t.) To be apprised, or have information, of; to learn; to be informed of; to hear; as, I understand that Congress has passed the bill.
  • (v. t.) To recognize or hold as being or signifying; to suppose to mean; to interpret; to explain.
  • (v. t.) To mean without expressing; to imply tacitly; to take for granted; to assume.
  • (v. t.) To stand under; to support.
  • (v. i.) To have the use of the intellectual faculties; to be an intelligent being.
  • (v. i.) To be informed; to have or receive knowledge.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The results indicated that neuropsychological measures may serve to broaden the concept of intelligence and that a brain-related criterion may contribute to a fuller understanding of its nature.
  • (2) Models able to describe the events of cellular growth and division and the dynamics of cell populations are useful for the understanding of functional control mechanisms and for the theoretical support for automated analysis of flow cytometric data and of cell volume distributions.
  • (3) It involves creativity, understanding of art form and the ability to improvise in the highly complex environment of a care setting.” David Cameron has boosted dementia awareness but more needs to be done Read more She warns: “To effect a cultural change in dementia care requires a change of thinking … this approach is complex and intricate, and can change cultural attitudes by regarding the arts as central to everyday life of the care home.” Another participant, Mary*, a former teacher who had been bedridden for a year, read plays with the reminiscence arts practitioner.
  • (4) The purpose of these studies was to better understand the molecular basis of chromosome aberration formation after mitomycin C treatment.
  • (5) Attempts are now being made to use this increased understanding to produce effective killed vaccines that produce immune responses in the lung.
  • (6) The evidence suggests that by the age of 15 years many adolescents show a reliable level of competence in metacognitive understanding of decision-making, creative problem-solving, correctness of choice, and commitment to a course of action.
  • (7) It is entirely proper for serving judges to set out the arguments in high-profile cases to help public understanding of the legal issues, as long as it is done in an even-handed way.
  • (8) Further study both of the signaling events that lead to MPF activation and of the substrates for phosphorylation by MPF should lead to a comprehensive understanding of the biochemistry of cell division.
  • (9) The only way we can change it, is if we get people to look in and understand what is happening.” Facebook Twitter Pinterest Dean, Clare and their baby son.
  • (10) Grisham said she and other aides had not been aware of the trip and “appreciate everyone’s understanding”.
  • (11) With better understanding of metabolic and compositional requirements, great advances have been made in the area of total parenteral nutrition.
  • (12) I did not - do not - quite understand how some are able to contemplate his anti-semitism with indifference.
  • (13) To get a better understanding of the different cell interactions during the immune response to a hapten-carrier complex, the effects of immunogenic or tolerogenic injections of various hapten-containing compounds on the responses induced by immunization with the same hapten coupled to protein carriers were studied.
  • (14) A clearer understanding of these relationships and their application to clinical management await further study.
  • (15) A good understanding of upper gastrointestinal physiology is required to properly understand the pathophysiological events in various diseases or after operations on the upper gastrointestinal tract.
  • (16) More needs to be known about the direct and indirect modulation of cytokine production by cyclosporin A in connective tissues, in order to understand its potential value in clinical disorders.
  • (17) This is not an argument for the status quo: teaching must be given greater priority within HE, but the flipside has to be an understanding on the part of students, ministers, officials, the public and the media that academics (just like politicians) cannot make everyone happy all of the time.
  • (18) For a better understanding of the cytochrome P-450 mediated reactions, we studied the metabolism of midazolam in microsomal fractions prepared from twelve human livers.
  • (19) Critical in this understanding are the subtle changes that occur in the individual patient, reflecting the natural history of the disease or response to its treatment.
  • (20) We are already witnessing a wholly understandable uprising of protest.