Spikes

How to spell spikes

6 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce spikes

What does spikes mean?

1. nounSharp, pointed objects or projections, such as those on a fence, railing, or surface.
2. nounRunning or sports shoes fitted with short metal points on the soles for grip.
3. verbRises sharply, or pierces, impales, or adds something to in a sudden way.

Spikes in a sentence

• noun

  The top of the wall was lined with metal spikes to deter intruders.

• noun

  The sprinter laced up her spikes before the heat.

• verb

  Demand for heating spikes whenever the temperature drops.

• noun

  The gardener wore gloves to avoid the thorny spikes on the stems.

• noun

  He kept a spare pair of spikes in his kit bag for the track.

• verb

  She spikes the volleyball hard over the net to score the point.

Where does spikes come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The base word 'spike' entered Middle English around the 1300s, meaning a large pointed nail or a sharp projecting point. Its ancestry is tangled but Germanic in flavour: it is closely related to the Middle Dutch and Middle Low German 'spiker', meaning a long nail, and to the Old Norse 'spik', and these in turn echo the Latin 'spica', which literally meant an ear of grain or a sharp point. Over the centuries the noun spread outward to cover anything sharp and projecting, from the spikes on a railing to the metal studs screwed into the soles of athletic shoes. By the twentieth century it had also become a lively verb, used for piercing or impaling and, more figuratively, for a sudden sharp rise, as in a spike in prices or a fever. The plural and verb form simply adds the regular '-s', so the only real spelling point is that the silent 'e' of spike is dropped before nothing here and the 'k' is never softened.

How the word is built

• spike (sharp point, large nail)
• -s (plural noun / third-person verb suffix)