Spare or spear?
spare is an adjective meaning “Being more than what is necessary, or what must be used or reserved; not…”; spear is a noun meaning “A long stick with a sharp tip used as a weapon for throwing or thrusting, or…”. Use spare as an adjective and spear as a noun (spear is also an adjective: “Male”). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) spare is about 3.8 times as common as spear.
What is the difference between spare and spear?
| spare | spear | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | adjective, noun, verb | noun, verb, adjective |
| Meaning | Being more than what is necessary, or what must be used or reserved; not wanted, or not used; superfluous Held in reserve, to be used in an emergency The act of sparing; moderation; restraint | A long stick with a sharp tip used as a weapon for throwing or thrusting, or anything used to make a thrusting motion A soldier armed with such a weapon; a spearman To pierce with a spear |
| Example | I have no spare time | a spear counterpart |
| Forms | sparer, sparest | spears |
| Pronunciation | /spɛə(ɹ)/ /spɛɚ/ /speː/ | /spɪə̯(ɹ)/ /spɪɹ/ |
| In writing | 19 times per million words | 5.0 times per million words |
Sources: spare and spear 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 spare and spear
spare
- 1
Being more than what is necessary, or what must be used or reserved; not wanted, or not used; superfluous
I have no spare time
- 2
The act of sparing; moderation; restraint
- 3
To desist; to stop; to refrain
- 4
Held in reserve, to be used in an emergency
a spare anchor; a spare wheel or tyre
- 5
Parsimony; frugal use
- 6
To refrain from inflicting harm; to use mercy or forbearance
- 7
Not occupied or in current use
We could rent out the spare room
- 8
An opening in a petticoat or gown; a placket
spear
- 1
A long stick with a sharp tip used as a weapon for throwing or thrusting, or anything used to make a thrusting motion
- 2
To pierce with a spear
- 3
Male
a spear counterpart
- 4
The sprout of a plant, stalk
- 5
A soldier armed with such a weapon; a spearman
- 6
To penetrate or strike with, or as if with, any long narrow object; to make a thrusting motion that catches an object on the tip of a long device
- 7
Pertaining to male family members
the spear side of the family
- 8
A lance with barbed prongs, used by fishermen to retrieve fish
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, spare or spear?
spare appears 19 times per million words; spear 5.0 times per million words.
spare 19 times per million wordsspear 5.0 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 spare vs spear?
“spare vs spear” is searched about 30 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“spear vs spare”, “spare or spear”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.