nonspeaking

adjective

non·​speak·​ing ˌnän-ˈspē-kiŋ 

1

: not involving spoken lines

a nonspeaking cameo role

"So I went and auditioned, too. And they liked me, and gave me a small nonspeaking part in a Bertolt Brecht play."

—Ted Danson

2

: not speaking or able to speak

Pound, who was then in a nonspeaking phase, sat on the couch in the living room all day Sunday, looking out at the view.

—Cynthia Zarin

Examples of nonspeaking in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Her oldest child is autistic and nonspeaking, and needs significant attention and care, and the baby had been teething and not sleeping well. — Jeanine Santucci, USA Today, 15 Aug. 2026

Adele got a nonspeaking part in the human machine that would gouge the prisoner’s sentence into the officer’s body. — Jonathan Franzen, New Yorker, 1 June 2026

Finally, a shout-out to actor Ryan Cooper, who plays the dead man, for the most part a nonspeaking role. — Gary Thompson, Philly.com, 15 June 2017

Word History

First Known Use

circa 1851, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for nonspeaking

• critiquing
• creaking
• eking
• freaking
• leaking
• peaking
• peeking
• reeking
• seeking
• shrieking
• sneaking
• speaking