spiel
Americannoun
verb (used without object)
-
spiels,
present (3rd person singular)
-
spieled,
past participle, past
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spieling
present participle
noun
verb
-
(intr) to deliver a prepared spiel
-
to recite (a prepared oration)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
spielsimple
-
spielssimple
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have spieledperfect
-
has spieledperfect
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am spielingprogressive
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are spielingprogressive
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is spielingprogressive
-
have been spielingperfect progressive
-
has been spielingperfect progressive
Past
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spieledsimple
-
had spieledperfect
-
was spielingprogressive
-
were spielingprogressive
-
had been spielingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of spiel
First recorded in 1890–95; (for the noun) from German Spiel or Yiddish shpil “play, game”; (for the verb) from German spielen or Yiddish shpiln “to play, gamble”
Explanation
A spiel is a lengthy, often glib talk that's intended to persuade or make excuses. Infomercials feature salespeople giving a 30-minute spiel about some product. Used as a noun or verb, spiel originates from the German word spielen, meaning “to play." It's often somewhat rehearsed and should be greeted with skepticism. Upon turning 16, your child might give you a spiel about why they need a car for their birthday. In a political debate, if your stance doesn't sound original, thoughtful, and earnest, it may just come across as a spiel, leading your audience to think, "Oh, brother, there they go again."
Vocabulary lists containing spiel
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Upon landing, the flight attendant’s voice rang over the intercom to give us the usual spiel as our aircraft made its way to the jet bridge.
From Salon ● Jan. 11, 2026
Mr. Brady pulled off Don Profondo’s patter song “Medaglie incomparabili,” a tongue-twisting list of precious objects, as an auctioneer’s spiel.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 1, 2025
Here, we see the Muppets, also celebrating a 70th anniversary, try and fail to give a safety spiel.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 15, 2025
She said students approach the table just to pick up the medication, which would cost about $50 at a pharmacy—but once they’re there, “I have to get my little spiel in” about Amendment 4.
From Slate ● Oct. 30, 2024
He sat there and doodled with his blue pencil on a tablet, listening to me spiel to him for three or four minutes before he got a word in.
From "The Autobiography of Malcolm X" by Alex Malcolm X;Hailey
Wang now spends his time trying to help other victims of similar spiels.
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
The playoff music, meant to signal winners to wrap up their spiels, began playing more than halfway into Brody’s speech.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 3, 2025
The stray references in these spiels are still hot, such as the one to “John Lovitz” and “SNL when it was good.”
From Slate ● Mar. 23, 2024
They are suckers for the spiels of the young because they believe only the young can perceive the next new thing.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 16, 2022
"What kind of spiels do you give 'em?" she inquired with growing interest.
From Polly of the Circus by Margaret Mayo
Moses sipped, while his team spieled tasting notes that reminded me of a Shel Silverstein poem.
From The New Yorker ● Apr. 4, 2016
"You can't lose," spieled a full-page ad by Doubleday & Co. in the New York Times Book Review.
From Time Magazine Archive
One source of exuberance is that, rather than seeming sung or danced or chanted, a lot of production numbers seem spieled or shilled; they have a contagious carnival air, a ballyhoo rhythm.
From Time Magazine Archive
A high-pressure salesman trying to sell Kaufman some goldmine stock spieled dramatically: "You can shovel the gold right off the ground into wheelbarrows."
From Time Magazine Archive
Clifton's voice came to me as he spieled his directions for making it dance, and I held it by the feet and stretched its neck, seeing it crumple and slide forward.
From "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison
When the going is easy, he is the spieling image of his father.
From Time Magazine Archive
One night, while listening to a radio announcer spieling a tasteless commercial, Gagman Roger Price exploded.
From Time Magazine Archive
After spieling off a few tips about grip and stance, he belts out a few balls.
From Time Magazine Archive
Undergraduate Sibley's job was to stand dumbly but alluringly beside the freaks while the barker was spieling.
From Time Magazine Archive
Jack Drew talked too straight in the paper, and in spite of his proprietors—about pub spieling and such things—and was too sarcastic in his progress committee, town council, and toady reception reports.
From Over the Sliprails by Henry Lawson
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
