spume
Americanverb (used with object)
verb (used without object)
noun
noun
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
has spumedperfect 3rd person singular
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have spumedperfect
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is spumingprogressive 3rd person singular
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spumessingular 3rd person
-
are spumingprogressive
-
spumingparticiple
-
has been spumingperfect progressive 3rd person singular
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am spumingprogressive 1st person singular
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have been spumingperfect progressive
Past
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had spumedperfect
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were spumingprogressive plural
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spumedparticiple
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was spumingprogressive singular
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had been spumingperfect progressive
-
spumedsimple
Future
Etymology
Origin of spume
1300–50; Middle English < Latin spūma foam, froth; akin to foam
Explanation
As a noun, spume means the froth you find on sea water. As a verb, it means to make frothy, as in...well...frothy seawater. If you've ever wondered why seawater produces so much froth, note that the bubbles come from high concentrations of surfactants, or organic material in the water. The spuming, or bubbling action happens when breaking waves introduce air into the water and then trap it in bubble form. To remember spume, just think about the foam that washes up on the beach and sticks there for a time. You could be forgiven for thinking of it as what the ocean spews forth.
Vocabulary lists containing spume
"My Wonder Horse," Vocabulary from the short story
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"The Odyssey," Vocabulary from Part 1 of the epic poem
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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.
The style Matthiessen conjures is almost visual, with fragments of scene description and lines of unattributed dialogue arranged on the page like solitary brushstrokes or like breakers of spume on the open sea.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 21, 2025
And with its evocations of cliffs, peaks, sails and spume, the building’s form relays a sympathetic message from the San Gabriel Mountains looming to the northeast to the surf at the city’s other end.
From Los Angeles Times • May 22, 2019
The sound of a thundering sea – which backs a multi-screen film about the Haenyeo, a matriarchal society of diving women who inhabit a Korean island – fills the air with aural spume.
From The Guardian • Jul. 22, 2013
Dinosaurish creatures as big as skyscrapers do battle with equally gigantic robots on land and sea, pulverizing familiar cities and churning up geysers of spume.
From New York Times • Jul. 11, 2013
The shot spume soared to the landside heights, and fell like rain.
From "The Odyssey" by Homer
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.
