Sparked

How to spell sparked

7 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce sparked

What does sparked mean?

1. verbSet something in motion or triggered a reaction or feeling (past tense of spark).

Sparked in a sentence

• The new policy sparked a heated debate among the staff.

• A chance remark at lunch sparked the idea for her business.

Where does sparked come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The base word spark comes from the Old English spearca, which named a small glowing fragment thrown off by a fire or by struck metal. It belongs to a family of Germanic words for crackling and scattering, and similar forms turn up in Middle Dutch and Old Norse for the same flying ember. By the Middle Ages the literal sense of a tiny flying flame had broadened into a vivid figurative one: a spark could be the first trace of life, feeling, or an idea, the smallest beginning of something larger. The verb developed naturally from the noun, meaning first to throw off sparks and then to set something going or trigger it, as a single spark can start a fire. The form sparked is simply that verb with the regular past-tense ending -ed, and the only real spelling point is remembering the silent regularity of -ked rather than any double letters.

How the word is built

• spark (a small fiery particle, from Old English spearca)
• -ed (past tense / past participle suffix)