spake
/speɪk/
spake adjective: quiet; tame. Also the simple past of speak.
Adjective
spake (comparative more spake, superlative most spake)
Noun
spake (plural spakes)
- A type of wagon on rails used for carrying workers in and out of a colliery.
Proper noun capitalized: Spake
Spake (plural Spakes)
- A surname.
Also used as
spake is also the simple past of speak.
spake is also the alternative form of spoke.
Forms of spake
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more spake |
| superlative | most spake |
| Noun | |
| plural | spakes |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Spakes |
Origin of spake
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”).
From Middle English spak, from Old English spæc, first and third person singular past tense of specan (“to speak”). More at speak.
Alternative form.
Words formed from spake
Words that rhyme with spake
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- flake
- slake
- stake
- wake
- sheikh
- strake
- betake
- mosaic
- blake
- fake
- jake
- opaque
- forsake
- lake
- mistake
- raik
- retake
- sake
- claik
- hake
- partake
- quake
- Spirit Lake
- steak
- ache
- remake
- tea break
- wrake
- ake
- alphamosaic
- ashake
- Choctaw Lake
- crake
- Deer Lake
- demake
- eastern green drake
- glass snake
- laik
- moonquake
- Mud Lake
- nake
- overtake
- parliament cake
- prison break
- radiopaque
- rattlesnake
- reshake
- sodaic
Questions about spake
- What does spake mean?
- Spake means quiet; tame.
- What part of speech is spake?
- Spake can be an adjective, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce spake?
- Spake is pronounced /speɪk/.
Words near spake in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: spake (page history and authors); Spake (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-spake.wav.
Cite this entry: “spake.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/spake. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.