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spike

/spaɪk/noun, verb

spike is spelled S-P-I-K-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 9.1 times per million words in written English, the 7,553rd most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, spike means “A sort of very large nail” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of spike is spikes.

How many letters and syllables are in spike?

Letters5: S-P-I-K-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing9.1 times per million words; the 7,553rd 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 spike?

Spike appears 9.1 times per million words in written English, the 7,553rd 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 spike?

  • /spaɪk/

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

Forms of spike

  • spikes plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • spiking participle, present
  • spiked participle, past

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

What does spike mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    A sort of very large nail.

  2. 2

    A piece of pointed metal etc. set with points upward or outward.

    The trap was lined with spikes.

  3. 3

    Anything resembling such a nail in shape.

  4. 4

    An ear of corn or grain.

  5. 5

    A kind of inflorescence in which sessile flowers are arranged on an unbranched elongated axis.

  6. 6

    informalA running shoe with spikes in the sole to provide grip.

  7. 7

    A sharp peak in a graph.

  8. 8

    A surge in power or in the price of a commodity, etc.; any sudden and brief change that would be represented by a sharp peak on a graph.

verb

  1. 1

    To fasten with spikes, or long, large nails.

    to spike down planks

  2. 2

    To set or furnish with spikes.

  3. 3

    To embed nails into (a tree) so that any attempt to cut it down will damage equipment or injure people.

  4. 4

    To fix on a spike.

  5. 5

    To discard; to decide not to publish or make public.

  6. 6

    To increase sharply.

    Traffic accidents spiked in December when there was ice on the roads.

  7. 7

    To add alcohol or a drug into a drink, especially if covertly.

    She spiked my lemonade with vodka!

  8. 8

    To add a small amount of one substance to another.

    The water sample to be tested has been spiked with arsenic, antimony, mercury, and lead in quantities commonly found in industrial effluents.

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

Spike in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchclou, pointe (very large nail), pieu, pic, pique (anything resembling such a nail in shape), épi (ear of grain – see also ear)
GermanNagel, Spitze (very large nail), Stachel (anything resembling such a nail in shape), Ähre, Getreideähre (ear of grain – see also ear), in die Höhe schießen (to increase sharply)
Portugueseespinho, cravo (very large nail), espiga (ear of grain – see also ear), disparar (to increase sharply), pitão (informal: running shoes with spikes in the soles), cortada (volleyball)
Spanishclavo, pincho (very large nail), púa, punta, puncha (anything resembling such a nail in shape), rematar (volleyball)

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 spike come from?

From Middle English spike, spyke, spik, from Old Norse spík (“spike, sprig”), from Proto-Germanic *spīkō (“stick, splinter, point”), from Proto-Indo-European *spey- (“to be pointed; sharp point, stick”). Cognate with Icelandic spík (“spike”), Swedish spik (“spike, nail”), Dutch spijker (“nail”), Old English spīcing (“spike”), and Latin spīca (“ear of corn”), which may have influenced some senses.

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

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