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spoke

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: spöke

English

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /spəʊk/
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -əʊk
  • Hyphenation: spoke

Etymology 1

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From Middle English spoke, from Old English spāca, from Proto-West Germanic *spaikā, from Proto-Germanic *spaikǭ. Compare Scots spaik (spoke) and English spike.

Noun

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spoke (plural spokes)

  1. A support structure that connects the axle or the hub of a wheel to the rim.
  2. (nautical) A projecting handle of a steering wheel.
  3. A rung of a ladder.
  4. A stick inserted into the wheel of a vehicle to keep the wheel from turning.
  5. One of the outlying points in a hub-and-spoke model of transportation.
Derived terms
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Translations
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Verb

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spoke (third-person singular simple present spokes, present participle spoking, simple past and past participle spoked)

  1. (transitive) To furnish (a wheel) with spokes.

Further reading

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Etymology 2

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Verb

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spoke

  1. simple past of speak
  2. (archaic or nonstandard) past participle of speak
    • c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies [] (First Folio), London: [] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii], page 366, column 2:
      Cleo. Hye thee againe, / I haue ſpoke already, and it is provided.
    • 1741, The London Magazine, and Monthly Chronologer[1], volume 10, C. Ackers, page 435:
      Thoſe who have ſpoke in its Favour have allowed, that it is defective, with regard to the preſent Circumſtances of Europe, []
    • 2014 May 1, John Barker, Futures: A Novel[2], PM Press, page 131:
      I should have spoke to him there and then, seen he was in the mood to do something stupid.

Anagrams

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Afrikaans

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Noun

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spoke

  1. plural of spook

Dutch

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Verb

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spoke

  1. (dated or formal) singular present subjunctive of spoken

Middle English

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Old English spāca, from Proto-West Germanic *spaikā, from Proto-Germanic *spaikǭ.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈspɔːk(ə)/
  • (early) IPA(key): /ˈspɑːk(ə)/
  • (Northern) IPA(key): /ˈspaːk/

Noun

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spoke (plural spokes or spoken)

  1. a spoke (support radiating from the middle of a wheel)
  2. a sharp spike or projection on the edge of a wheel

Descendants

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  • English: spoke
  • Scots: spaik
  • Yola: spagh

References

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