What does "speakeasy" mean?

An illegal saloon or tavern, especially one operated during the American Prohibition period in the 1920s.

What is a synonym for "speakeasy"?

Common synonyms include: blind tiger, alehouse, bar, barrel house, barroom, beer garden.

noun

noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Noun

1
An illegal saloon or tavern, especially one operated during the American Prohibition period in the 1920s. historical
"Many of the legitimate nightclubs of today sprang like legalized phoenixes from the still-hot ashes of the speakeasies of prohibition days."
2
(during prohibition) an illegal barroom wordnet

"The police raided the speakeasy."

Deverbal from speak easy (= speak quietly [interj.]); for the history, see Wikipedia at speakeasy § Etymology.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.