Spoil or spoilt?
spoilt is the simple past and past participle of spoil. spoil is also a noun: “Plunder taken from an enemy or victim”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) spoil is about 5.1 times as common as spoilt.
What is the difference between spoil and spoilt?
| spoil | spoilt | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | verb, noun | adjective, verb |
| Meaning | To strip (someone who has been killed or defeated) of arms or armour To ruin; to damage in such a way as to make undesirable or unusable To ruin the character of, by overindulgence; to coddle or pamper to excess Plunder taken from an enemy or victim | simple past and past participle of spoil UKHaving lost its original value UKOf food, that has deteriorated to the point of no longer being usable or edible |
| Example | All this sun spoils me for vacations in the far North | The food went spoilt in the heat and had to be thrown away |
| Forms | spoils, spoiling, spoiled, spoilt | none |
| Pronunciation | /spɔɪl/ | /spɔɪlt/ |
| In writing | 6.5 times per million words | 1.3 times per million words |
Sources: spoil and spoilt 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 spoil and spoilt
spoil
- 1
To ruin; to damage in such a way as to make undesirable or unusable
All this sun spoils me for vacations in the far North
- 2
Plunder taken from an enemy or victim
- 3
To ruin the character of, by overindulgence; to coddle or pamper to excess
- 4
Material (such as rock or earth) removed in the course of an excavation, or in mining or dredging. Tailings. Such material could be utilised somewhere else
- 5
To go bad; to become sour or rancid; to decay
Make sure you put the milk back in the fridge; otherwise it will spoil
- 6
To render (a ballot) invalid by deliberately defacing
spoilt
- 1
UKHaving lost its original value
- 2
UKOf food, that has deteriorated to the point of no longer being usable or edible
The food went spoilt in the heat and had to be thrown away
- 3
UKHaving a selfish or greedy character, especially due to pampering
The child was so spoilt that she expected everything to be done for her
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, spoil or spoilt?
spoil appears 6.5 times per million words; spoilt 1.3 times per million words.
spoil 6.5 times per million wordsspoilt 1.3 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).