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.

---

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.

---

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

---

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

---

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

The more openly she spoke about it, the more she realised how many other people were quietly living with it too.

From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026

The Wall Street Journal spoke with Schulten about the state of the American consumer, P&G’s business in China, and how commodity prices could affect the company’s outlook.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026

The UN chief spoke after holding bilateral and trilateral meetings with the rival Cypriot leaders.

From Barron's ● Jul. 29, 2026

Ellis: I was working at a research-driven stock brokerage, and every client I spoke with was certain they could beat the market.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 29, 2026

Now Nils spoke in a low normal voice.

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

But the fact remains that they are dedicated wearers and spokes folks for that brand — and not Nike.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 27, 2026

However, Wales will relish the chance to stick a spanner in the spokes and puncture such title pretensions.

From BBC ● Mar. 14, 2025

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

From Salon ● Feb. 25, 2025

He wondered if he would ever again see his father riding a bicycle with mangoes in its spokes.

From "A Long Walk to Water" by Linda Sue Park

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

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

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

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