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Definition of uptalk
: speech in which each clause, sentence, etc., ends like a question with a rising inflection Starting in America with the Valley Girls of the 1980s …, uptalk became common among young women across the country by the 1990s. — Douglas Quenqua, New York Times, 27 Feb. 2012 —called also upspeak
uptalk
less commonlyup–talk
intransitive verb,uptalked
alsoup–talked
;uptalking
alsoup–talking
;uptalks
alsoup–talks
… girls in my high school who used to buy expensive sandwiches and uptalk. — Amy Sohn, New York Post, 14 Sept. 1999 The road to job success starts after you study up on these 10 real-world work rules. … 2 Don't up-talk. Speaking in a singsong voice and posing statements as if they were questions leave you sounding girlie and unsure. — Colleen Rush, Cosmopolitan, January 2006From the M-W Editors
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First Known Use of uptalk
1993
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