Showing results for "spoke"

• past tense form of speak.

spoke

¹ American  

[spohk] / spoʊk /

verb

1. a simple past tense of speak.

2. Nonstandard. a past participle of speak.

3. Archaic. a past participle of speak.

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spoke ² American  

[spohk] / spoʊk /

noun

spokes plural

1. one of the bars, rods, or rungs radiating from the hub or nave of a wheel and supporting the rim or felloe.

2. something that resembles the spoke of a wheel.

3. a handlelike projection from the rim of a wheel, as a ship's steering wheel.

4. a rung of a ladder.

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verb (used with object)

spoked, spoking

1. to fit or furnish with or as with spokes.

spoke ¹ British  

/ spəʊk /

noun

1. a radial member of a wheel, joining the hub to the rim

2. a radial projection from the rim of a wheel, as in a ship's wheel

3. a rung of a ladder

4. to thwart someone's plans

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verb

1. (tr) to equip with or as if with spokes

spoke ² British  

/ spəʊk /

verb

1. the past tense of speak

2. archaic a past participle of speak

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• spokeless
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• spokes
  plural

Etymology

Origin of spoke

First recorded before 900; Middle English; Old English spāca; cognate with Dutch speek, German Speiche

Explanation

A spoke is a bar or rod that connects the center of a wheel to its rim. The purpose of spokes is to support the structure of the wheel. You can jazz up your bike by weaving ribbons between the spokes. Originally, spoke meant "a piece of a split log." When wagon wheels were made of wood, they were formed using these spokes, which were carved into matching shapes. Wheels with spokes were invented around 2000 B.C.E. or even earlier, and they revolutionized travel, making vehicles lighter and faster. Experts believe that spoke shares a root with spike.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

spoke spokes spoked spoking

Six of the 12 former Palestinian detainees the Journal spoke to said they had been denied necessary medical care.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026

Mitchell is one of four Xbox developers BBC Newsbeat spoke to who lost their jobs in the latest cuts.

From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2026

She spoke to British Christian radio station TWR-UK for about nine minutes via video link, but the interview was not broadcast.

From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026

I spoke with Heidecker between the premieres of the first and second episodes; these are edited excerpts from the conversation.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026

I spoke once about my feelings to Mama.

From "The Hiding Place" by Corrie ten Boom

Since World War II the alliance had worked like a wheel: The U.S. as the indispensable hub and the rest as spokes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 8, 2026

She punched out a hole in the traditional berliner and yes, it cooked more evenly, but notably, young Hanson could store them on the helm spokes.

From Salon ● Feb. 5, 2026

When England did safely gather, Australia were able to shove a spanner in the spokes of their usually powerful driving maul.

From BBC ● Sep. 6, 2025

“He wants to put a crowbar in the spokes of our wheels within a nanosecond,” Newsom said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 6, 2024

The white spokes wobble in the sun’s glare.

From "The London Eye Mystery" by Siobhan Dowd

On a recent episode of What Next, I spoked with McNeill about whether going inside the Bat Lands could help prevent the next outbreak.

From Slate ● May 30, 2023

By 4000 years ago, the new horse dominated a region from central Anatolia to central Russia, where people of the Sintashta culture buried horses with the earliest spoked wheels and chariots in mounds called kurgans.

From Science Magazine ● Oct. 20, 2021

I also spoked with NBA commissioner Adam Silver andasked him if he would ever punish a player for speaking out on something that Silver personally disagrees with.

From The Guardian ● Feb. 17, 2021

In 14 years wearing the spoked “B,” Chara was named the league’s top defenseman in ’09 and five other times finished in the top five.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 29, 2021

It was a house that we knew, having admired the large white wheelbarrow tilted down on spoked wheels and planted with seasonal flowers.

From "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison

In "Miniature," flowers are magnified to astronomical proportions: One dandelion is yellow, is a solar flame spoking from a green nether rim; the other gray, a dainty crumb-cake of a moon.

From Time Magazine Archive

A large piece of graphed paper containing a design for an outdoor space: a fountain in the middle and pebble pathways spoking out from it.

From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse

Souilly was barely a hamlet surrounded by farmland, a cluster of small cottages spoking out like a wheel from a modest stone town hall.

From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse

Your Lordschip knawis weall the man: he hes spoking with your Lordschip: I thought yow content with him.

From The Works of John Knox, Vol. 1 (of 6) by Laing, David