spider
/ˈspaɪ̯dɚ/noun, verb
spider is spelled S-P-I-D-E-R: 6 letters and 2 syllables. It appears 18 times per million words in written English, the 4,667th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, spider means “Any of various eight-legged, predatory arthropods, of the order Araneae, most of which spin webs to catch prey” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of spider is spiders.
How many letters and syllables are in spider?
| Letters | 6: S-P-I-D-E-R |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 18 times per million words; the 4,667th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with |
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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is spider?
Spider appears 18 times per million words in written English, the 4,667th 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 spider?
- UK /ˈspaɪ̯də/
- US /ˈspaɪ̯dɚ/
- Canada [ˈspʌɪ̯ɾə(ɹ)]
Spider has 2 syllables (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-spider.ogg, En-au-spider.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with spider?
9 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as spider from its last stressed vowel (/aɪdəɹ/):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of spider
- spiders plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- spidering participle, present
- spidered participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does spider mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
Any of various eight-legged, predatory arthropods, of the order Araneae, most of which spin webs to catch prey.
- 2
A program which follows links on the World Wide Web in order to gather information.
- 3
AustraliaA float (drink) made by mixing ice-cream and a soda or fizzy drink (such as lemonade).
- 4
AustraliaobsoleteAn alcoholic drink made with brandy and lemonade or ginger beer.
- 5
slangA spindly person.
- 6
slangA man who persistently approaches or accosts a woman in a public social setting, particularly in a bar.
- 7
A stick with a convex arch-shaped notched head used to support the cue when the cue ball is out of reach at normal extension.
- 8
UKUSA cast-iron frying pan with three legs, once common in open-hearth cookery.
Cut slices and lay them in cold water in the spider; boil them up two or three minutes, then pour off the water and set the spider again on the coals and brown the slices on each side.
verb
- 1
To move like a spider.
- 2
To cover a surface like a cobweb.
- 3
To follow links on the World Wide Web in order to gather information.
The online dictionary is regularly spidered by search engines.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Spider in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense arthropod:
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 spider come from?
Inherited from Middle English spithre, spider, from Old English spīþra (“spider”), from Proto-West Germanic *spinþrijō, from Proto-Germanic *spinnaną (“to spin”). Mostly displaced attercop (“spider, unpleasant person”), now a dialectal term. Compare typologically Proto-Slavic *mězgyrь (whence Russian мизги́рь (mizgírʹ)) (akin to Latvian mežģīt), Turkish örümcek (akin to örmek).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).