Meanings
spake1
comparative more spake · superlative most spake
spake2
- archaicpastsimple past of speak
He answered me with pleasure and surprise; / And there was, while he spake, a fire about his eyes.
1815 [1802], William Wordsworth, Resolution and Independence2 more examples
And God ſpake vnto Noah, ſaying, / Goe foorth of the Arke, thou, and thy wife, and thy ſonnes, and thy ſonnes wiues with thee:[…]
1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 8:15–16, columns 1–2But at last his heart changed,—and rising one morning with the rosy dawn, he went before the sun, and spake thus unto it: Thou great star! What would be thy happiness if thou hadst not those for whom thou shinest!
1909 [1883–1885], “Zarathustra's Prologue”, in Thomas Common, transl., Thus Spake Zarathustra, translation of Also sprach Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche
spake3
spake4
plural spakes
- WalesbusinessA type of wagon on rails used for carrying workers in and out of a colliery.
Spake5
Origin
spake · adjective
- Proto-Indo-European*(s)peǵ-“to understand; intelligent, attentive”
- Proto-Germanic*spakaz“wise, clever”
- Old Norsespakr“wise, gentle, quiet”
- Middle Englishspake
- Englishspake
From Middle English spake, spak, from Old Norse spakr (“wise, gentle, quiet”), from Proto-Germanic *spakaz (“wise, clever”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)peǵ- (“to understand; intelligent, attentive”). Cognate with Swedish spak (“manageable”), Danish spag (“quiet, gentle, timid, tame”).
More words from Middle English, Old Norse, Proto-Germanic
Full word history & related roots →spake · verb
- Old Englishspæc
- Middle Englishspak
- Englishspake
From Middle English spak, from Old English spæc, first and third person singular past tense of specan (“to speak”). More at speak.
More words from Middle English, Old English
Full word history & related roots →spake · noun
Uncertain. Possibly a variant of spoke, which has a variety of extended senses in English dialects and in Scots (including a tree branch or cutting, a windmill's arm, a birdcage's perch, and a bar for carrying a coffin), though none closely matching this.
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with spake
Anagrams
Cite this entry
spake. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/spake
“spake.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/spake. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “spake,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/spake.
Source: spake on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.