Word.ws English Dictionary

spence

/ˈspɛns/

spence noun: a buttery or pantry.

Noun

spence (plural spences)

  1. (UK, dated, dialectal) A buttery or pantry.
    • 'I expect it was a dog which got into the spence and licked up the junket and ate the biscuits,' put in the old turf-cutter. 'I would lock and bar the spence-door, if I were you, the next time I put such nice things in there.'1906, Enys Tregarthen, North Cornwall Fairies and Legends, page 77

Proper noun capitalized: Spence

Spence (countable and uncountable, plural Spences)

  1. Short form of the male given name Spencer.
  2. A surname.
  3. A suburb of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.
  4. A locality in the Limestone Coast region of South Australia.
  5. A ghost town in Magnetawan township, Parry Sound District, Ontario, Canada.

spence meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Telugu and Malayalam

spence in Hindi

स्पेंस

spence in Marathi

स्पेंस

spence in Telugu

స్పెన్స్

spence in Malayalam

സ്പെൻസ്
More languagesFewer languages
spence in Kannada
ಸ್ಪೆನ್ಸ್
spence in Punjabi
ਸਪੇੰਸ, ਸਪੈਂਸ
spence in Gujarati
સ્પેંસ

Forms of spence

Noun
pluralspences
alternative formspense
Proper noun
pluralSpences

Origin of spence

From Middle English spence, spense, borrowed from Middle French despense, from Medieval Latin dīspēnsa, noun use of feminine of Latin dīspēnsus, past participle of dīspendere (“weigh out”).

Words formed from spence

Words that rhyme with spence

16 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about spence

What does spence mean?
Spence means a buttery or pantry.
What is spence in Hindi?
Spence in Hindi is स्पेंस. See Spence meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is spence?
Spence can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce spence?
Spence is pronounced /ˈspɛns/.
What is the plural of spence?
The plural of spence is spences.

Words near spence in the dictionary

  1. spelunks
  2. spen
  3. spenard
  4. spenard divorce
  5. Spenard divorces
  6. spence
  7. Spencean
  8. spencer
  9. Spencer County
  10. Spencer Gulf
  11. Spencer steak

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spence (page history and authors); Spence (page history and authors); spence (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); spence (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); spence (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); spence (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); spence (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); spence (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); spence (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: en-ca-spence.oga, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Spence.wav.

Cite this entry: “spence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/spence. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.