# spoke
## English
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /spəʊk/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -əʊk
* Hyphenation: spoke

### Etymology 1

From Middle English spoke, from Old English spāca, from Proto-West Germanic *spaikā, from Proto-Germanic *spaikǭ. Compare Scots spaik (“spoke”) and English spike.

#### Noun

spoke (plural spokes)
* A support structure that connects the axle or the hub of a wheel to the rim.
** 1921, W. F. Grew, The Cycle Industry, London, page 4:The wheels were at first copies of a light hand-cart wheel, the wood spokes were brought together by tapering the spoke ends and wedging them together at the nave or hub and inserting the other ends in slots in the felloe or wood rim.
* (nautical) A projecting handle of a steering wheel.
* A rung of a ladder.
* A stick inserted into the wheel of a vehicle to keep the wheel from turning.
* One of the outlying points in a hub-and-spoke model of transportation.

##### Derived terms

* hub-and-spoke
* put a spoke in someone's wheel
* spoke-bone
* spoke-dog
* spoke key
* spoke-shave
* spoke wrench

##### Translations
#### Verb

spoke (third-person singular simple present spokes, present participle spoking, simple past and past participle spoked)
* (transitive) To furnish (a wheel) with spokes.

#### Further reading

* spoke on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

### Etymology 2

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

#### Verb

spoke
* simple past of speak
* (archaic or nonstandard) past participle of speak
** c. 1606–1607 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Anthonie and Cleopatra”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene ii], page 366, column 2:Cleo. Hye thee againe, / I haue ſpoke already, and it is provided.
** 1741, The London Magazine, and Monthly Chronologer‎, volume 10, C. Ackers, page 435:Thoſe who have ſpoke in its Favour have allowed, that it is defective, with regard to the preſent Circumſtances of Europe, […]
** 2014 May 1, John Barker, Futures: A Novel‎, PM Press, page 131:I should have spoke to him there and then, seen he was in the mood to do something stupid.

##### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Anagrams

* kepos, Pokes, pokes, posek

## Afrikaans
### Noun

spoke
* plural of spook

## Dutch
### Verb

spoke
* (dated or formal) singular present subjunctive of spoken

## Middle English
### Alternative forms

* spak, spake, spok, spook

### Etymology

From Old English spāca, from Proto-West Germanic *spaikā, from Proto-Germanic *spaikǭ.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈspɔːk(ə)/
* (early) IPA: /ˈspɑːk(ə)/
* (Northern) IPA: /ˈspaːk/

### Noun

spoke (plural spokes or spoken)
* a spoke (support radiating from the middle of a wheel)
* a sharp spike or projection on the edge of a wheel

#### Descendants

* English: spoke
* Scots: spaik
* Yola: spagh

#### References

* “spōk(e, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-06-12.