SPEAK UP Synonyms: 29 Similar and Opposite Words

speak up

verb

Definition of speak up

as in to speak out

to voice one's opinions freely with force she's never been afraid to speak up at town meetings

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of speak up Proponents of the change call the new ball a compromise, with one neighbor speaking up at a town meeting. — Mike Sullivan, CBS News, 31 July 2026 Jennifer Morrison, the state’s public-safety commissioner, has also spoken up. — Michael Powell, The Atlantic, 30 July 2026 Polak called on Portugal and the European Union to speak up about Au's case. — ABC News, 29 July 2026 Both Werkheiser and Bronin encouraged people who oppose these changes to speak up not only during the public comment period, but to their legislators directly. — Rachel Treisman, NPR, 23 July 2026 See All Example Sentences for speak up

Recent Examples of Synonyms for speak up

Verb

Jeremy Strong is speaking out on portraying Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in Aaron Sorkin‘s forthcoming film, The Social Reckoning.

— Lexi Carson, HollywoodReporter, 12 Aug. 2026
Parents in the Cheltenham, Pennsylvania, school district spoke out at a school board meeting Tuesday night in the wake of a hazing investigation into the high school football program.

— Chilekasi Adele, CBS News, 12 Aug. 2026

Definition of speak out

Verb

Students streamed out of the Debsirin Nonthaburi School, on the capital's northwestern outskirts, as the wounded were loaded on to ambulances and teachers hugged each other and cried.

— Chalinee Thirasupa, USA Today, 7 Aug. 2026
Once at the station, Komoroski is seen at first refusing to sit and once seated, starts to cry.

— Samira Asma-Sadeque, PEOPLE, 7 Aug. 2026

Definition of cry

Verb

In a timely interview with Mel as the festival began on Wednesday, Nazzaro talked up The Green Eyes, a pic from Fanny Liatard and Jérémy Trouilh’s that addresses deportation.

— Stewart Clarke, Deadline, 7 Aug. 2026
With yesterday's Fauci fiasco behind us, all the talk up here on the Hill is about Todd Blanche.

— Zachary Schermele, USA Today, 30 July 2026

Definition of talk up

Verb

Video that the teen lobster diver's family shared with ABC Miami affiliate WSVN allegedly shows Simpson swimming away from the third lung and back to the Contender vessel as people on Del Sol's boat began yelling and cursing at him.

— Bill Hutchinson, ABC News, 7 Aug. 2026
One of them confronted Wesley, who allegedly began to yell at the other counselor and demanded to know what was going on.

— Nate Gartrell, Mercury News, 7 Aug. 2026

Definition of yell

Verb

Every time a restaurant or other small business announces its closure, people pipe up on social media about what the business owner should have done to be successful.

— Gregg Olsen, PEOPLE, 26 June 2026
He was accused of hitting a man in the back of the head with a metal pipe inside the victim’s girlfriend’s home, then shoving the victim up against the wall and pushing the pipe up against his neck.

— John Annese, New York Daily News, 15 June 2026

Definition of pipe up

Verb

Other members of the cast have sounded off about Sheridan’s writing for the series in recent weeks.

— Brenton Blanchet, PEOPLE, 6 Aug. 2026
Influencers like Paige Paul (née Lorenze) have been sounding off in Four Winds Craft Guild’s comments, trying to frame the argument as a feminist one.

— Bethy Squires, Vulture, 29 July 2026