Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use spare in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective, noun, verb

Spare means being more than what is necessary, or what must be used or reserved; not wanted, or not used; superfluous. Example: “I have no spare time.”

Examples of spare by meaning

adjectiveBeing more than what is necessary, or what must be used or reserved; not wanted, or not used; superfluous.

  • I have no spare time.

adjectiveHeld in reserve, to be used in an emergency.

  • a spare anchor; a spare wheel or tyre

adjectiveNot occupied or in current use.

  • We could rent out the spare room.
  • As the 1857 to Manchester Piccadilly rolls in, I scan the windows and realise there are plenty of spare seats, so I hop aboard.2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 68

adjectiveScant; not abundant or plentiful.

  • a spare diet
  • Jones’ sad eyes betray a pervasive pain his purposefully spare dialogue only hints at, while the perfectly cast Brolin conveys hints of playfulness and warmth while staying true to the craggy stoicism at the character’s core.2012 May 24, Nathan Rabin, “Film: Reviews: Men In Black 3”, in The Onion AV Club

adjectiveSparing; frugal; parsimonious; not spending much money.

  • Under Hartmut Warkuss, its design director until 2003, Volkswagen styling celebrated its Teutonic origins and the spare modernist tradition expressed in Braun radios and coffee makers, reference points for the neomodern simplicity of the iPod.2009 April 12, Phil Patton, “At VW, the Italian Accent Gets Stronger”, in New York Times

adjectiveVery angry; frustrated or distraught.

  • When he found out that someone had broken the window, he went spare.
  • The poor girl is going spare, stuck in the house all day with the kids like that.
  • “That'll drive him spare.”2006, Tate Hallaway, Tall, Dark & Dead

nounAny car part or comparable machine part in a supply chain.

  • People sometimes forget that world-class logistics also involve inventory management in warehouses full of spares.

nounA superfluous or second-best person.

  • an heir and a spare
  • The whole Heir versus Spare thing?2023, Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex; J. R. Moehringer, Spare, Penguin Random House, →ISBN

More sentences with spare

  • You might want a spare change of underwear in case you poop your pants.From the entry poop
  • The money from renting out a spare room can augment a salary.From the entry augment
  • We still have the spare tire? That's a comfort at least.From the entry comfort
  • I had a bit of cash on me, but no spare change.From the entry spare change
  • The cost of an opulent wedding is spare change to a millionaire.From the entry spare change
  • Never leave home without a spare stiffy disc in your bag.From the entry stiffy
  • His retirement and consequent spare time enabled him to travel more.From the entry consequent
  • If the Web server crashes, we can fail over to the spare in less than a second.From the entry fail over
  • She always had two spare Speedos for her swimming competitions away from home.From the entry speedos
  • He spent his spare time on the weekend perfecting his very own pasigraphy.From the entry pasigraphy
  • Selling those old books freed up most of the spare room.From the entry free up
  • They shipped it ordinary freight to spare the expense.From the entry freight
  • The announcement implied that somebody needed a spare Toshiba charger.From the entry announcement
  • Do you have a gum to spare?From the entry gum
  • That spare wheel pertains to this car.From the entry pertain
  • This event couldn't have been possible without the efforts of the altruists who helped in their spare time.From the entry altruist
  • No expense was spared in making it a princely residence.From the entry princely
  • Spare two quid, guv? I 'aven't eaten since yesterday.From the entry guv
  • There's some bacon going spare if anyone wants some more.From the entry go spare
  • Do we have any spare batts for the TV remote?From the entry batts
  • Act ruthlessly and unforgivingly towards the enemy, because if you spare him today, then he can and will annihilate you tomorrow.From the entry unforgivingly
  • The heavily discounted initial engine sales were offset by the follow-on sales of engines and highly profitable spare parts.From the entry follow-on
  • Bob's just finished painting the spare room. Looks good, dunnit?From the entry dunnit
  • I made it to my appointment with time to spare.From the entry to spare
  • Brother, can you spare a dime?From the entry brother
  • We constructed the radio from spares.From the entry construct
  • You can't expect him to spare any more money, because he's borrowed up to the hilt from the bank for his new apartment.From the entry to the hilt

Meaning of spare

  1. adjective Being more than what is necessary, or what must be used or reserved; not wanted, or not used; superfluous.
  2. adjective Held in reserve, to be used in an emergency.
  3. adjective Not occupied or in current use.

Full definition of spare

Questions about spare in a sentence

How do you use spare in a sentence?
Spare is used as an adjective, noun and verb. For example: “I have no spare time.”
What is a short sentence with spare?
“a spare diet”
What does spare mean?
Spare means being more than what is necessary, or what must be used or reserved; not wanted, or not used; superfluous.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spare (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use spare in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/spare. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.