Spot

How to spell spot

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce spot

What does spot mean?

1. nounA small mark, stain, or particular area or place.
2. verbTo notice or catch sight of something, often something hard to see.

Spot in a sentence

• noun

  A grease spot had soaked through the tablecloth.

• verb

  A sharp editor can spot a typo in seconds.

• noun

  They found a shady spot for the picnic near the river.

• verb

  Trained guides can spot a deer in the distant treeline.

Where does spot come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

Spot comes from Middle English, where it appeared as spotte meaning a small mark, stain, or blemish, and it has close cousins in the wider Germanic family, including the Middle Dutch spotte and the Old Norse spotti, a small bit or piece. The earliest sense fixed on the idea of a small discoloured patch on a surface or on the skin, and from there English stretched it in two directions. By extension it came to mean a particular small area or place, as in a quiet spot, and later still it grew the very common verb sense of catching sight of something, as a hunter or birdwatcher might spot a single mark moving against a background. The spelling has stayed pleasingly simple throughout, just four letters with a short vowel, which is why the double t never enters the base form even though it returns in spotted and spotting. Its history is firmly homely and northern European rather than classical, so it carries none of the Latin or Greek spelling traps.

How the word is built

• spot (a single, indivisible root from Middle English; no prefix or suffix)