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

You also spoke at a congressional hearing focused on declining entertainment jobs in L.A. and the push for federal production tax incentives.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026

According to one former CIA officer, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity, the group is one of the few institutions in Cuba's government with an interest in abandoning the decades-old communist economic model.

From Barron's ● Aug. 6, 2026

On a recent episode of What Next, host Mary Harris spoke to Bensinger about why Loomer’s trip to Ukraine was actually a big deal—maybe.

From Slate ● Aug. 6, 2026

As his barrister spoke about why there should be a reduced sentence, Bear appeared to briefly cry.

From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026

I sighed over my pizza and looked around the cafeteria, as noisy as ever with everyone gossiping, laughing, and generally being people who spoke to the other people at their tables.

From "Bye Forever, I Guess" by Jodi Meadows

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

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

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

Alabama stuck a stick in the spokes of the juggernaut by pulling Clingan away from the basket and burying 3-pointers.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 6, 2024

Salva would take a mango from the spokes almost before his father had dismounted.

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

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

I lean against one of the large spoked wheels and pass the time alternately picking slivers from beneath my nails and chewing long pieces of grass.

From "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen

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