Spark

How to spell spark

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce spark

What does spark mean?

1. nounA small glowing or burning particle thrown off by a fire, or a brief flash produced by electricity.
2. verbTo set something off or trigger it into action, or to emit glowing particles.

Spark in a sentence

• noun

  A single spark from the bonfire drifted onto the dry grass.

• verb

  The new tax policy is likely to spark a heated debate among investors.

• noun

  The worn cable produced a blue spark when it touched the metal frame.

• verb

  A faulty plug can spark a fire if it is left switched on overnight.

Where does spark come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Spark comes straight from the Old English noun 'spearca', which named a tiny glowing fragment thrown off by a fire. It belongs to a wider Germanic family, with close relatives such as the Middle Dutch 'sparke', all pointing back to a shared root for a burning particle that flies up and away. The verb sense, meaning to throw off such glowing fragments, developed naturally from the noun. From the 1800s onward the word took on a vivid figurative life, so that an idea, an argument, or an interest could now be 'sparked' into existence, the metaphor borrowing the image of a single point of fire setting something larger alight. The spelling has stayed remarkably stable and phonetic, which is why it rarely troubles a writer; the only echo of its long history is the unfussy four-letter form English has kept for over a thousand years.

How the word is built

• spark (single Old English root; no prefix or suffix)