Speech balloon
(重定向自Thought balloons)

![Before the 18th century, speech was depicted using bands, flags, scrolls, or sheets of paper.[1]](/uploads/202502/16/Strigel_1506-detail2934.jpg)


Speech balloons (also speech bubbles, dialogue balloons or word balloons) are a graphic convention used most commonly in comic books, comics and cartoons to allow words (and much less often, pictures) to be understood as representing the speech or thoughts of a given character in the comic. There is often a formal distinction between the balloon that indicates thoughts and the one that indicates words spoken aloud: the balloon that conveys subjective thoughts is often referred to as a thought bubble.