acicate

[asiˈkat̪e]

/[asiˈkat̪e]/ noun

The verdict

“acicate” is uncommon Spanish (frequency #81,631 among 7,704 “A” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#81,631
frequency rank, Spanish
7,704
“A” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Incitativo, estímulo, motivación.

Corpus desk

Index ES-acicate · acicate · Spanish

acicate · rank #81,631 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #81,631
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 7,704
  • PHOTO-FINISH acercarán

Nearest frequency peer: acercarán (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Rangos de cola larga cerca de “acicate”

Banda escasa: las barras invierten el rango para que lo raro se lea más corto

corpus weight

What this shows Vista de cola larga: dónde “acicate” se sitúa frente a rangos españoles igualmente raros.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for acicate
PropertyValue
Headwordacicate
LanguageSpanish
Part of speechNoun
IPA[asiˈkat̪e]
Letters7
Frequency rank#81,631
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Cola larga: rango de “acicate” en español

De izquierda a derecha: las pocas palabras que cargan el habla diaria, luego la cola larga casi invisible.acicatecae en esta cola de rareza:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

La escala es logarítmica (cada marca ≈ 10× más rara). Vecinos raros de la misma franja: “acercarán” (#81,630), “aceleraba” (#81,629), “acogemos” (#81,633). Entre 7,704 lemas con “A”, “acicate” va en #81,631. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

acicate is uncommon Spanish at frequency #81,631 among 7,704 “A” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed [asiˈkat̪e]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

No misspelling variants are generated for acicate in our index, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our dataset records no confusable match here, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct Spanish form is acicate, spelled A-C-I-C-A-T-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Incitativo, estímulo, motivación.
  2. 2
    Espuela para montar a la jineta, la cual solo tiene una punta de hierro con que se pica al caballo, y en ella un tope para impedir que penetre mucho.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how acicate appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. me costó mucho, pero la esperanza de conseguir lo necesario fue un acicate para hacer más de lo que en otras circunstancias habría hecho.

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 Spanish corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "acicate"?
"acicate" is spelled A-C-I-C-A-T-E. The IPA pronunciation is [asiˈkat̪e].
What does "acicate" mean?
As a noun, "acicate" means: Incitativo, estímulo, motivación.
How do you pronounce "acicate"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "acicate" is [asiˈkat̪e]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "acicate" come from?
"acicate" is a Spanish word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar Spanish words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "acicate", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked Spanish headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list