spie

\ʃpiː\

/\ʃpiː\/ verb

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“spie” is uncommon French (frequency #70,226 among 6,032 “S” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#70,226
frequency rank, French
6,032
“S” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Première personne du singulier du prétérit de speien.

Corpus desk

Index FR-spie · spie · French

spie · rank #70,226 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #70,226
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,032
  • PHOTO-FINISH spectaculaire…

Nearest frequency peer: spectaculairement (-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.

Rangs de longue queue près de « spie »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « spie » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for spie
PropertyValue
Headwordspie
LanguageFrench
Part of speechVerb
IPA\ʃpiː\
Letters4
Frequency rank#70,226
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « spie » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).spietombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « spectaculairement » (#70,225), « SPIP » (#70,227), « spolier » (#70,228). Parmi 6,032 lemmes en « S », « spie » est au #70,226. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

spie is uncommon French at frequency #70,226 among 6,032 “S” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed \ʃpiː\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 4 senses are on record.

spie has no tracked misspelling variants, suggesting the orthography follows predictable French patterns. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, suggesting its spelling stands apart enough that readers rarely confuse it with something else.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct French form is spie, spelled S-P-I-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Première personne du singulier du prétérit de speien.
  2. 2
    Première personne du singulier du subjonctif II de speien.
  3. 3
    Troisième personne du singulier du prétérit de speien.
  4. 4
    Troisième personne du singulier du subjonctif II de speien.

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 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "spie"?
"spie" is spelled S-P-I-E. The IPA pronunciation is \ʃpiː\.
What does "spie" mean?
As a verb, "spie" means: Première personne du singulier du prétérit de speien.
How do you pronounce "spie"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "spie" is \ʃpiː\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "spie" come from?
"spie" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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 French words by spelling shape

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

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

SPIP#70,227soum#70,222sunt#70,243sela#70,207

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list