spine
/spaɪn/noun
spine is spelled S-P-I-N-E: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 8.5 times per million words in written English, the 7,910th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, spine means “A series of bones situated at the back from the head to the pelvis of a human, or from the head to the tail of an animal, enclosing the spinal cord…” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of spine is spines.
How many letters and syllables are in spine?
| Letters | 5: S-P-I-N-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 8.5 times per million words; the 7,910th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
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 spine?
Spine appears 8.5 times per million words in written English, the 7,910th 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 spine?
- /spaɪn/
Spine 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: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-spine.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with spine?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as spine.
Spelled with the same letters in another order: penis, snipe.
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 spine
- spines plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does spine mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
A series of bones situated at the back from the head to the pelvis of a human, or from the head to the tail of an animal, enclosing the spinal cord and providing support for the thorax and abdomen.
- 2
Courage or assertiveness.
- 3
Something resembling a backbone, such as a ridge, or a long, central structure from which other structures radiate.
- 4
The narrow, bound edge of a book that encloses the inner edges of the pages, facing outwards when the book is on a shelf and typically bearing the title and the author's and publisher's name.
- 5
A pointed, fairly rigid protuberance or needlelike structure on an animal, shell, mushroom or plant. The botanical term technically refers to such a structure derived from a leaf or part of a leaf.
- 6
The heartwood of trees.
- 7
Ellipsis of dendritic spine.
- 8
A linear payscale operated by some large organizations that allows flexibility for local and specific conditions.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Spine in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | colonne vertébrale, échine, épine dorsale , dos , épine, piquant |
| German | Rückgrat, Wirbelsäule , Rücken, Buchrücken , Stachel |
| Portuguese | espinhaço, espinha, coluna, coluna vertebral , dorso , espinho |
| Spanish | columna vertebral, espinazo, espina dorsal, raquis, entrecuesto, esquena |
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 spine come from?
From late Middle English spyne, from Old French espine (French épine) or its source, Latin spīna (“a thorn; a prickle, spine; the backbone”). Doublet of spina.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).