Spice

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: spīs, IPA: /spaɪs/, SAMPA: /spaIs/

• Audio (US)

  noicon

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪs

Etymology 1

From Old French espice (modern épice), from Late Latin (plural) species (“spices, goods, wares”), from Latin (singular) spĕciēs (“kind, sort”).

Noun

Spice (countable and uncountable; plural Spices)

1. (uncountable) Plant matter (usually dried) used to season or flavour food.
2. (countable) Any variety of spice.
3. (uncountable, Yorkshire) Sweets, candy.

Hyponyms

• See also Thesaurus:seasoning

Hypernyms

• seasoning

Coordinate terms

• herb

Derived terms

• allspice
• five-spice powder
• herbs and spices
• spiceberry
• spicebush
• spicery
• spice up
• spiciness
• spicy
• spicy tooth
• variety is the spice of life

Translations

plant matter used to season or flavour food

Albanian: erëz (sq) Arabic: تابل (tābal, tābil) m. Armenian: համեմունք (hy) (hamemunk') Basque: espezia (eu) Catalan: espècia (ca) f. Chinese: Mandarin: 香料 (cmn) (xiāngliào) Czech: koření (cs) n. Danish: krydderi (da) Dutch: kruid (nl) n., specerij (nl) f. Esperanto: spico (eo) Finnish: mausteet (fi) pl. French: épices (fr) f. pl. Georgian: სანელებელი (ka) (sanelebeli) German: Würze (de) f., Gewürz (de) n. Greek: καρύκευμα (el) (karýkevma) n. Hebrew: תבלין (he) (tavlin) Hindi: मसाला (hi) (masālā) Hungarian: fűszer (hu) Indonesian: bumbu (id) Italian: spezie (it) f. pl. Japanese: 香辛料 (ja) (こうしんりょう, kōshinryō), スパイス (ja) (supaisu)

Korean: 향신료 (ko) (hyangsinlyo) Latin: arōma (la) f., condītūra (la) f. Latvian: garšviela (lv) f. Lithuanian: prieskonis (lt) Macedonian: зачин (mk) (záčin) m. Maltese: ħwawar (mt) Mongolian: халуун ногоо (mn) (haluun nogoo) Norwegian: krydder (no) Old English: please add this translation if you can Persian: ادویه (fa) (adviye) Polish: przyprawa (pl) f. Portuguese: especiaria (pt) f. Romanian: condiment (ro) Russian: пряность (ru) (prjánost’) f., специя (ru) (spécija) f. Scottish Gaelic: spìosradh (gd) m. Slovene: začimba (sl) f. Spanish: especia (es) f. Swahili: kiungo (sw) Swedish: krydda (sv) Thai: เครื่องเทศ (krêuang têt) Turkish: baharat (tr) Vietnamese: gia vị (vi)

any variety of spice

Armenian: համեմունք (hy) (hamemunk') Chinese: Mandarin: 香料 (cmn) (xiāngliào) Danish: krydderi (da) Dutch: specerij (nl) f. Finnish: mauste (fi) French: épice (fr) f. German: Gewürz (de) n. Greek: καρύκευμα (el) (karýkevma) n. Italian: spezia (it) f.

Japanese: 香辛料 (ja) (こうしんりょう, kōshinryō), スパイス (ja) (supaisu) Macedonian: зачин (mk) (záčin) m. Norwegian: krydder (no) n. Portuguese: tempeiro (pt) m. Russian: пряность (ru) (prjánost’) f., специя (ru) (spécija) f. Scottish Gaelic: spìosradh (gd) m. Slovene: začimba (sl) f. Spanish: especia (es) f., aliño (es) m., condimento (es) m., aderezo (es) m. Swahili: kiungo (sw)

Yorkshire dialect: sweets, candy — see sweets, candy

Verb

Spice (third-person singular simple present Spices, present participle spicing, simple past and past participle spiced)

1. (transitive) To add spice or spices to.

Derived terms

• spice up

Translations

to add spice or spices to

Dutch: kruiden (nl) Finnish: maustaa (fi) French: épicer (fr) German: würzen (de) Greek: καρυκεύω (el) (karykévo), νοστιμεύω (el) (nostimévo) Italian: speziare

Macedonian: зачинува (mk) (začínuva) Norwegian: krydre (no) Polish: przyprawiać (pl), przyprawić (pl) Slovene: začiniti (sl) Spanish: aliñar (es), condimentar (es), sazonar (es), aderezar (es) Swahili: kiungo (sw)

Etymology 2

Formed by analogy with mice as the plural of mouse by Robert A. Heinlein in Time Enough for Love.

Noun

spice

1. (nonce word) Plural form of spouse.

References

• “Spice” in the Online Etymology Dictionary, Douglas Harper, 2001

Anagrams

• epicsar:spice