Apraxia is a disorder of speech (speech is the process of pronunciation and articulation) in which the difficulty involves planning, sequencing, and producing the movements required to make sounds and words.

Verbal apraxia in particular refers to the ability to programme the lips and tongue in order to make muscle movements for speech, whereas oral apraxia refers to nonspeech movements of the lips and tongue such as blowing and puckering the lips. Apraxia therefore is often described as a problem with making the voluntary movements necessary for speech.