spoils

/spɔɪlz/noun, verb

spoils is spelled S-P-O-I-L-S: 6 letters and one syllable. It appears 2.1 times per million words in written English, the 18,811th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, spoils means “That which is taken from another by violence; especially, the plunder taken from an enemy; pillage, booty” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).

How many letters and syllables are in spoils?

Letters	6: S-P-O-I-L-S
Syllables	1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing	2.1 times per million words; the 18,811th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched	none 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 spoils?

Spoils appears 2.1 times per million words in written English, the 18,811th most frequent word form in the list.

spoils0.0010.010.11101001,00010,000

rarerper million words of written Englishmore common

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce spoils?

/spɔɪlz/

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

What does spoils mean?

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

noun

1
That which is taken from another by violence; especially, the plunder taken from an enemy; pillage, booty.
2
Waste material left over in the course of excavation, construction, mining, or dredging operations.
dredging spoils
3
Public offices and their benefits regarded as the peculiar property of a successful party or faction, to be bestowed for its own advantage.
To the victor belong the spoils.

verb

1
third-person singular simple present indicative of spoil (a form of spoil)
Milk spoils when left out too long.

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

Spoils in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

Language	Words
French	pillage, sac (that which is taken from another by violence), favoritisme (public offices and their benefits regarded as…)
German	Beute (that which is taken from another by violence)
Spanish	despojo, despojamiento, expolio, espolio (that which is taken from another by violence)

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.