Standard Lemma guide

doublespeak

noun · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • /ˈdəbəlˌspiːk/
  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: D AH1 B AH0 L S P IY2 K Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

noun

Meaning 1

Any language deliberately constructed to disguise or distort its actual meaning, often by employing euphemism or ambiguity.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: uncountable

Examples

  • The report was riddled with so much corporate doublespeak that it was impossible to interpret.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: double talk

Antonyms: none provided

2

noun

Meaning 2

any language that pretends to communicate but actually does not

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: evasion, equivocation

History

Etymology

From double + -speak. Coined in the 1950s in the vein of George Orwell's Newspeak as used in his book Nineteen Eighty-Four. The word doublespeak does not appear in the book, although newspeak, oldspeak, and doublethink do.

Across languages

Translations

10 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Chinese Mandarin: 雙言巧語 /双言巧语 (shuāngyánqiǎoyǔ) — language deliberately constructed to disguise or distort its actual meaning
  • Finnish: kaksoispuhe — language deliberately constructed to disguise or distort its actual meaning
  • French: double langage — language deliberately constructed to disguise or distort its actual meaning
  • French: double discours — language deliberately constructed to disguise or distort its actual meaning
  • Greek: διγλωσσία (diglossía) — language deliberately constructed to disguise or distort its actual meaning
  • Hungarian: mellébeszélés — language deliberately constructed to disguise or distort its actual meaning
  • Hungarian: kettős beszéd — language deliberately constructed to disguise or distort its actual meaning
  • Polish: gra półsłówek — language deliberately constructed to disguise or distort its actual meaning
  • Spanish: doble lenguaje — language deliberately constructed to disguise or distort its actual meaning
  • Swedish: skenspråk — language deliberately constructed to disguise or distort its actual meaning