Speaker

The officer who presides over a legislative chamber. The post originated in 14th-c England, where one member of the House of Commons was designated to speak to the king. In the UK, the Speaker presides over the House of Commons, maintains order, and interprets its rules and practice. He or she is a constituency MP elected by fellow members, but must sever party connections and be entirely impartial. Most Commonwealth countries have similar officers, although seldom is the office so detached from party political affairs, and in some instances speakers are notably partisan. In the US House of Representatives, the Speaker is a leader of the majority party, and expected to assist in securing the passage of his or her party's legislation.

The word speaker has a number of uses:

As a person:

A speaker can be anyone who speaks, especially when giving a speech, or lecture, especially a skilled orator (see also public speaking). Speaker (politics), in politics, the presiding officer in many legislative assemblies. In linguistics, a speaker is who utters a message, and is typically the center of deixis in the message; Also in linguistics, a speaker is a user of a spoken language, as opposed to a signer, a user of a sign language; or anyone who masters and uses a language, while only a native speaker has it as his or her mother tongue.

As an object:

Computer speaker, a computer peripheral that reproduces speech and/or music. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.