hum vs speak

hum

verb
  • To produce low sounds which blend continuously 

  • To express by humming. 

  • To reek, smell bad. 

  • To make a sound from the vocal chords without pronouncing any real words, with one's lips closed. 

  • To drone like certain insects naturally do in motion, or sounding similarly 

  • To buzz, be busily active like a beehive 

noun
  • Unpleasant odour. 

  • A phenomenon, or collection of phenomena, involving widespread reports of a persistent and invasive low-frequency humming, rumbling, or droning noise not audible to all people. 

  • Busy activity, like the buzz of a beehive. 

  • A hummed tune, i.e. created orally with lips closed. 

  • An often indistinct sound resembling human humming. 

intj
  • Synonym of um: a noise indicating doubt, uncertainty, &c. 

  • Synonym of hmm: a noise indicating thought, consideration, &c. 

speak

verb
  • To produce a sound; to sound. 

  • To communicate with one's voice, to say words out loud. 

  • To understand (as though it were a language). 

  • To have a conversation. 

  • To utter. 

  • To be able to communicate in a language. 

  • Of a bird, to be able to vocally reproduce words or phrases from a human language. 

  • To deliver a message to a group; to deliver a speech. 

  • To be able to communicate in the manner of specialists in a field. 

  • To communicate or converse by some means other than orally, such as writing or facial expressions. 

  • To communicate (some fact or feeling); to bespeak, to indicate. 

noun
  • Speech, conversation. 

  • language, jargon, or terminology used uniquely in a particular environment or group. 

How often have the words hum and speak occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )