Spake or spoke?
spake is a noun meaning “Alternative form of spoke (of a wheel)”; spoke is a noun meaning “A support structure that connects the axle or the hub of a wheel to the rim”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) spoke is about 115 times as common as spake.
What is the difference between spake and spoke?
| spake | spoke | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, noun | noun, verb |
| Meaning | A type of wagon on rails used for carrying workers in and out of a colliery | A support structure that connects the axle or the hub of a wheel to the rim A projecting handle of a steering wheel To furnish (a wheel) with spokes |
| Example | none recorded | none recorded |
| Forms | spakes | spokes |
| Pronunciation | /speɪk/ | /spəʊk/ /spoʊk/ |
| In writing | about once in every 3 million words | 41 times per million words |
Sources: spake and spoke in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of spake and spoke
spake
- 1
ScotlandAlternative form of spoke (of a wheel)
- 2
A type of wagon on rails used for carrying workers in and out of a colliery
spoke
- 1
A support structure that connects the axle or the hub of a wheel to the rim
- 2
To furnish (a wheel) with spokes
- 3
A projecting handle of a steering wheel
- 4
A rung of a ladder
- 5
A stick inserted into the wheel of a vehicle to keep the wheel from turning
- 6
One of the outlying points in a hub-and-spoke model of transportation
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, spake or spoke?
spake appears about once in every 3 million words; spoke 41 times per million words.
spake about once in every 3 million wordsspoke 41 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search spake vs spoke?
“spake vs spoke” is searched about 140 times a month on Google and 20 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“spoke vs spake”, “spake or spoke”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.