Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

spean

/spiːn/

Word Rarity Very rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.62 in modern English

Syllables: spean
IPA: /spiːn/

7

Scrabble Score

5

Letters

1

Syllables

5

Unique Chars

Meaning

noun

A teat or nipple of a cow.

Archaic

verb

Archaic form of spane.

Archaic

name

A river in Highland council area, Scotland, which flows into the River Lochy.

Example Sentences

"The Genital part is all nervy; the Tail ſmall; and the Hind hath Udders betwixt her Thighs, with four Speans or Tets, like a Cow."
"1899, Colville, Vernacular, page 15, Beginning life as a grice, the pig when speaned became a shot."

Etymology

From Middle English *spene, *spane, from Old English spane, spanu (“teat”), from Proto-West Germanic *spanu, *spenu, from Proto-Germanic *spenô (“nipple”), from Proto-Indo-European *pstḗn (“breast; teat”). Cognate with West Frisian spien (“nipple”), Dutch speen (“nipple”), Danish spene (“teat”), Swedish spene (“teat, nipple, dug”), Icelandic speni (“teat”). Alternatively a borrowing from Dutch speen (“nipple, teat”), from the same Proto-Germanic origin as above.

Origin

Source language: Middle English

Word Breakdown

Root: *spene, spane, *spanu, *spenô, *pstḗn, speen

Usage

Archaic

Inflected Forms

speans (plural) spane (alternative, Scotland) spene (alternative, Kent) speen (alternative, Kent) spaine (alternative, obsolete) speane (alternative, obsolete) speans (present, singular) speaning (participle, present) speaned (participle, past) speaned (past)

Phrases

Spean Bridge

Rhymes With

been between mean seen green clean scene machine queen screen magazine golden mean

Questions

How do you pronounce spean?: The recorded pronunciation is /spiːn/.
What does spean mean?: A teat or nipple of a cow.
Where does spean come from?: It is traced to Middle English.

How to pronounce spean

Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “spean”.
Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/spiːn/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “spean”.
Repeat and practice — Say “spean” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.