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spice

/spaɪs/noun, verb

spice is spelled S-P-I-C-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 8.7 times per million words in written English, the 7,797th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, spice means “Aromatic or pungent plant matter (usually dried) used to season or flavor food” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of spice is spices.

How many letters and syllables are in spice?

Letters5: S-P-I-C-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing8.7 times per million words; the 7,797th 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 spice?

Spice appears 8.7 times per million words in written English, the 7,797th 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 spice?

  • /spaɪs/

Spice 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-spice.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of spice

  • spices plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • spicing participle, present
  • spiced participle, past

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

What does spice mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    Aromatic or pungent plant matter (usually dried) used to season or flavor food.

  2. 2

    The quality of being spicy.

    What spice level do you want for your pad thai? I recommend mild.

  3. 3

    Appeal, interest; an attribute that makes something appealing, interesting, or engaging.

    variety is the spice of life

  4. 4

    A psychoactive neocannabinoid.

  5. 5

    Sweets, candy.

    Let's go daan to t'spice shop an see what they've i stock

  6. 6

    obsoleteSpecies; kind.

  7. 7

    A characteristic touch or taste; smack; flavour.

  8. 8

    An aromatic odor.

  9. 9

    plural of spouse (a form of spouse)

verb

  1. 1

    To add spice or spices to; season.

  2. 2

    To spice up.

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

Spice in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchépices (plant matter used to season or flavour food), épice (any variety of spice), épicer (to add spice or spices to)
GermanWürze, Gewürz (plant matter used to season or flavour food), würzen (to add spice or spices to)
Portugueseespeciaria, tempero (plant matter used to season or flavour food), temperar (to add spice or spices to)
Spanishespecia (plant matter used to season or flavour food), aliño, condimento, aderezo (any variety of spice), aliñar, condimentar (to add spice or spices to)

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 spice come from?

Inherited from Middle English spice, from Old French espice (modern épice), from Late Latin speciēs (“spice, good, ware”), from Latin speciēs (“kind, sort”). Doublet of species.

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

What to look up after spice