SPADE
What does "SPADE" mean?
A digging tool with a broad flat metal blade and a long handle.
Meanings
- A tool for digging, with a sharp-edged rectangular blade and a handle. He leaned on the spade to catch his breath between rows.
- A playing card of the suit marked with black inverted-heart symbols. She laid down the ace of spades and won the trick.
- To dig or turn over ground with a spade. We spaded the whole bed before planting.
Did you know?
- The spade on a deck of cards and the spade in the shed are false twins: the card suit took its name and shape from the Italian 'spada', a sword, while the garden tool descends from a separate Old English word.
Word origin
The digging tool comes from Old English 'spadu'; the card suit comes separately from Italian 'spade', plural of 'spada' (sword), from Latin 'spatha' (broad blade) and Greek 'spathe'.
Remember it
A SPADE is for the SPADEwork; picture the blade as the pointed card suit standing on its tip, ready to dig.
A little poem
One spade turns earth and one is dealt by hand;
both cut clean lines through soil or through a plan.
couplet
Wordplay
- I asked the card player to call a spade a spade, but he insisted it was a sword - and the history of the word proved him half right.
What it teaches
Two things sharing a name need not share an origin; look before you assume the family tree.
Quick facts
What does SPADE mean?
A digging tool with a broad flat metal blade and a long handle.
Is SPADE a valid word?
Yes — SPADE is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is SPADE?
SPADE has 5 letters and 1 syllable.
Where does SPADE come from?
The digging tool comes from Old English 'spadu'; the card suit comes separately from Italian 'spade', plural of 'spada' (sword), from Latin 'spatha' (broad blade) and Greek 'spathe'.
What can SPADE teach us?
Two things sharing a name need not share an origin; look before you assume the family tree.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.