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

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Etymology

Origin of spoke

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

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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

BBC Wales spoke to young people in Cardiff who said they supported the proposed ban, with one 17-year-old saying it was "really easy to start relying on them".

From BBC ● Nov. 6, 2026

On Friday, President Trump spoke with Qatar’s ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, to discuss mediation efforts.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2026

She is one of many people who spoke to the BBC about their worst job interview experiences after we wrote about the one interview question that leaves you feeling uncomfortable.

From BBC ● Nov. 6, 2026

The New York Times reported Wednesday that “two people close to the justice who spoke on the condition of anonymity” said that is still his position.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2026

It was Karli who spoke up for him.

From "An Elephant in the Garden" by Michael Morpurgo

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

Which it achieves by connecting to us like the spokes of a wheel.

From Salon ● Feb. 25, 2025

Itoje was a menace around the breakdown, turning over ball and putting a spanner in Scotland's attacking spokes as the referee let play flow.

From BBC ● Feb. 22, 2025

When I caught up to him again at Sepulveda, I told him his back wheel needed new spokes.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 8, 2024

A wheelwright and his helper squat in their dark room hammering spokes into a hub.

From "Grendel" by John Gardner

So, on Tuesday’s episode oof What Next, I spoked to Jeff Goodell about what we’re going to do about it.

From Slate ● Jul. 12, 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

With his handkerchief he polishes the spoked hubcaps and the headlamps; he kicks mud off the running board, cleans the windows and windshield.

From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides

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 David Laing

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