spade
/speɪ̯d/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.33 in modern English
8
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A garden tool with a handle and a flat blade for digging. Not to be confused with a shovel which is used for moving earth or other materials.
noun
A cutting instrument used in flensing a whale.
noun
A device for terminating an electrical conductor resembling a small spade.
verb
To move with a spade, or as with a spade.
noun
A playing card marked with the symbol ♠.
Example Sentences
- "'Make your mind easy,' Ratsey said; 'I have dug too often in this graveyard for any to wonder if they see me with a spade.'"
- ""[...] And not a single spade has gone in the ground - not a single mile of track built.""
- "Rather than nonstop combat, the day-to-day experience of a Roman soldier was perhaps just as likely to involve spades as swords – though combat readiness was never far from mind."
- "‘Le baccarat,’ intoned the croupier as he spaded the thick chips over the table to Bond."
- "I've got only one spade in my hand."
- "And as for a divorce, I know plenty spades right here in Harlem get married any time they want to."
Etymology
From Middle English spade, from Old English spada, spade, spadu (“spade”), from Proto-Germanic *spadô. Doublet of spatha, spathe, and épée.