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PlainSpell

spade

/speɪ̯d/noun, verb

spade is spelled S-P-A-D-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 2.1 times per million words in written English, the 18,811th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, spade means “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” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of spade is spades.

How many letters and syllables are in spade?

Letters5: S-P-A-D-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing2.1 times per million words; the 18,811th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is spade?

Spade appears 2.1 times per million words in written English, the 18,811th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce spade?

  • /speɪ̯d/
  • /sped/

Spade has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-spade.ogg, En-au-spade.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of spade

  • spades plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • spading participle, present
  • spaded participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does spade mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    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.

  2. 2

    A cutting instrument used in flensing a whale.

  3. 3

    A device for terminating an electrical conductor resembling a small spade.

  4. 4

    A playing card marked with the symbol ♠.

    I've got only one spade in my hand.

  5. 5

    offensiveA black person.

verb

  1. 1

    To turn over soil with a spade to loosen the ground for planting.

  2. 2

    To move with a spade, or as with a spade.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Spade in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchbêche, pelle (garden tool with a handle and a flat blade for…), pique (one of the black suits in a deck of cards)
GermanSpaten (garden tool with a handle and a flat blade for…), Pik (one of the black suits in a deck of cards)
Portuguesepá (garden tool with a handle and a flat blade for…), espada (one of the black suits in a deck of cards), crioulo (black person)
Spanishpala, azada (garden tool with a handle and a flat blade for…), pica (one of the black suits in a deck of cards), negro, mulato (black person)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does spade come from?

From Middle English spade, from Old English spada, spade, spadu (“spade”), from Proto-Germanic *spadô. Doublet of spatha, spathe, and épée.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after spade