a quietly-spoken man (=one who always speaks quietly)spoken1 verbspoken2 adjective
spokenspok‧en1 /ˈspəʊkən $ ˈspoʊ-/ verb 
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES a quietly-spoken man (=one who always speaks quietly)
the past participle of speak a quietly-spoken man (=one who always speaks quietly)spoken1 verbspoken2 adjective
spokenspoken2 ●●○ adjective EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- Idiomatic and spoken phrases tend to differ widely throughout the country.
- This book will help you with both spoken and written English.
- By the time the talking was over, the hearings had generated over nine million spoken words.
- Even his softly spoken voice suggests a reticence toward off-stage communication.
- In practice, spoken language interpreters are highly educated and highly trained.
- It would have been the easiest thing in the world for the softly spoken champ to have been intimidated by such surroundings.
- One item which is becoming more significant is powers of communication - both spoken and written word.
- One very important problem in early learning is caused by the difference between spoken and written language.
- The human information processing system generally has few problems with spoken or written language, even when the stimulus is noisy or ambiguous.
- The mental lexicon is also involved in the production of written or spoken language.
THESAURUS
used about the language that people speak rather than write: · Spoken English is often less formal than written English.· I can understand classical Arabic but not spoken Arabic.
an oral test is one in which you have to speak rather than write. Oral is also used about culture, traditions, and history that are based on spoken English rather than being written down: · We had a 15-minute oral exam in German.· Anglo-Saxon stories and poems were part of a largely oral culture.
a verbal agreement, warning, form of communication etc is spoken rather than written down: · We had a verbal agreement but no written contract.· The company have received verbal approval to begin the project.
by someone telling you about something rather than by reading about it somewhere – used to say how you got some information: · He found out about the job by word of mouth.· A lot of our customers hear about us through word of mouth.
Longman Language Activatorspoken, not written spoken language is produced with the voice, not written down: · This book will help you with both spoken and written English.· Idiomatic and spoken phrases tend to differ widely throughout the country.
using spoken rather than written language -- use this especially about tests and exams: · We had a 15-minute oral exam in German.· Anglo-Saxon stories and poems were part of a largely oral culture.
spoken rather than written - use this especially about agreements, warnings, announcements etc that have never been written down and are therefore not always official: · We had a verbal agreement but no written contract.· Federal authorities gave Alascom verbal approval to begin the project.
if you find something out by word of mouth , you find it out because someone tells you, not because you have seen it advertised, read about it in a newspaper etc: · He learned about the job by word of mouth.· The tribe's history was passed on by word of mouth.
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES a quietly-spoken man (=one who always speaks quietly)COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADVERB
a quietly-spoken man (=one who always speaks quietly)· He was a quietly spoken middle-aged man whom anyone would find difficult to remember.
· Even his softly spoken voice suggests a reticence toward off-stage communication.· Elderly, softly spoken Mr Crawford in that rather Dickensian office in the City was a far cry from this.· It would have been the easiest thing in the world for the softly spoken champ to have been intimidated by such surroundings.· For in the softly spoken comment she had sensed condemnation.· Their loving was wild and tempestuous, with no time to spare for tenderness or softly spoken promises.
NOUN· As a result, spoken discourse comes to be regarded as more honest and truthful.· In spoken discourse, there is not the visual prompt of paragraph-initial line indentation to indicate a division in the discourse structure.· Some of the features we have described as marking paratone boundaries in spoken discourse can, of course, have other functions.
· The distinction between the two written forms does not correspond to any distinction in their spoken form.
· This figure, of course, is much higher than one expects for two unrelated spoken languages.· The mental lexicon is also involved in the production of written or spoken language.· One reason for this is that reading development is normally closely related to children's knowledge of spoken language.· Many facets of spoken language are absent from written language.· For this reason, spoken language interpreters are specifically trained to reject the effects of their utterance of the target language.· This is true even though they bring to the search the knowledge they already possess about how spoken language works.· They occur alongside spoken language, interact with it, and produce, together with it, a total system of communication.· The information you get from him/her will be spoken language.
· But the power of X-Clan is not the spoken word.· In cases of conduction aphasia, comprehension of spoken words and simple spoken sentences can be intact.· By the time the talking was over, the hearings had generated over nine million spoken words.· Thus, in spoken word identification, context plays a part before identification has been achieved.· The spoken word must be heard clearly.· Large halls ideal for music can be too reverberant for the spoken word.· The most important bias of dictionaries is to the written rather than the spoken word.· We recorded some spoken word with Burroughs to incorporate directly into a remix of the song.
PHRASES FROM THE ENTRY► quietly/softly-spoken
- At 2 years of age, children begin to master spoken language, a system of arbitrary signs.
- For this reason, spoken language interpreters are specifically trained to reject the effects of their utterance of the target language.
- In normal spoken language there are often clear pragmatic constraints on the choice of particular syntactic forms.
- In order of their emergence, they are deferred imitation, symbolic play, drawing, mental imagery, and spoken language.
- Neologisms come and go very quickly in spoken language but tend to be less frequent in writing.
- Researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore have found that testosterone aids spatial thinking, but interferes with performance of spoken language.
- The purpose was to show that he too used spoken language and that it and Tarvarian were mutually incomprehensible.
- The same arguments apply to children's spoken language.
- But the power of X-Clan is not the spoken word.
- During secondary education, the use of the spoken word increases.
- Hal could do this when necessary, but most of his communication with his shipmates was by means of the spoken word.
- He showed a little smile, as if only the spoken word might perk his interest.
- Large halls ideal for music can be too reverberant for the spoken word.
- Other symptoms of dyslexia can include difficulty in writing, calculating or even understanding the spoken word.
- The most important bias of dictionaries is to the written rather than the spoken word.
- But all of the money is spoken for.
- Contest ends when all tickets are spoken for.
- Most of your capital is spoken for, and the creditors are closing in.
- Though they were spoken for my benefit, I could not be assumed to share the same norms.
- When the words were spoken for the third time, however, the divorce was irrevocable.
WORD FAMILYadjectiveunspeakablespeechlessoutspokenspoken ≠ unspokennounspeakerspeechverbspeakadverbunspeakably
1spoken English/language etc the form of language that you speak rather than write2the spoken word spoken language rather than written language or music: pupils’ understanding of the spoken word a spoken-word CD3quietly/softly-spoken British English speaking in a quiet way: a softly-spoken young man4be spoken for a)if someone is spoken for, they are married or already have a serious relationship with someone b)if something is spoken for, you cannot buy it because it is being kept for someone else → well-spokenTHESAURUSspoken used about the language that people speak rather than write: · Spoken English is often less formal than written English.· I can understand classical Arabic but not spoken Arabic.oral an oral test is one in which you have to speak rather than write. Oral is also used about culture, traditions, and history that are based on spoken English rather than being written down: · We had a 15-minute oral exam in German.· Anglo-Saxon stories and poems were part of a largely oral culture.verbal a verbal agreement, warning, form of communication etc is spoken rather than written down: · We had a verbal agreement but no written contract.· The company have received verbal approval to begin the project.by/through word of mouth by someone telling you about something rather than by reading about it somewhere – used to say how you got some information: · He found out about the job by word of mouth.· A lot of our customers hear about us through word of mouth.