spice

English

Wikipedia

Pronunciation

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

• Audio (US)

  (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. (figuratively, uncountable) Appeal, interest; an attribute that makes something appealing, interesting, or engaging.
4. (uncountable, Yorkshire) Sweets, candy.

Hyponyms

• See also Wikisaurus: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)
• Faroese: krydd (fo) n, kryddarí (fo) n
• 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)
• Luxembourgish: Gewierz (lb) n
• 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, tempero (pt), tempero (pt)
• Romanian: condiment (ro)
• Russian: пряность (ru) (prjánost’) f , специя (ru) (spécija) f 
• Scottish Gaelic: spìosradh (gd) m
• Slovak: korenie (sk) n
• 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)

• Czech: koření (cs) n
• Danish: krydderi (da)
• Dutch: specerij (nl) f
• Finnish: mauste (fi)
• French: épice (fr) f
• German: Gewürz (de) n
• Greek: καρύκευμα (el) (karýkevma) n 
• Icelandic: krydd (is) 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: tempero (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)
• Swedish: krydda (sv)

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 Douglas Harper, Online Etymology Dictionary (2001).

Anagrams

• epics