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spicule

noun

spicule is spelled S-P-I-C-U-L-E: 7 letters. It appears about once in every 66 million words in written English, the 255,765th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, spicule means “A sharp, needle-like piece” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of spicule is spicules.

How many letters and syllables are in spicule?

Letters7: S-P-I-C-U-L-E
In writingabout once in every 66 million words; the 255,765th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

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

How common is spicule?

Spicule appears about once in every 66 million words in written English, the 255,765th 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).

Forms of spicule

  • spicules plural

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

What does spicule mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    A sharp, needle-like piece.

  2. 2

    A tiny glass flake formed during the manufacture of glass vials.

  3. 3

    Any of many needle-like crystalline structures that provide skeletal support in marine invertebrates like sponges.

  4. 4

    A needle-like mating structure found only in male nematodes.

  5. 5

    A jet of matter ejected from the photosphere of the sun.

  6. 6

    A small spike of flowers.

  7. 7

    A unit of mass equal to 125 pounds.

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

Spicule in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
GermanNadel (sharp, needle-like piece), Kalknadel (any of many needle-like crystalline structures…)
Spanishespícula (sharp, needle-like piece)
Frenchspicule (any of many needle-like crystalline structures…)
Portugueseespícula (any of many needle-like crystalline structures…)

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 spicule come from?

From Latin spīculum.

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

What to look up after spicule