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spew

verb · noun

Simple meaning

To eject forcibly and in a stream.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

spyoo
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈspju

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

verb

  1. transitive

    To eject forcibly and in a stream

  2. intransitiveinformal

    To vomit.

  3. transitive

    To speak or write quickly and voluminously, especially words that are not worth listening to or reading.

  4. intransitive

    To be written or spoken voluminously.

  5. intransitive

    To ejaculate.

noun

  1. Material that has been ejected in a stream, or the act of spewing.

  2. A white powder or dark crystals that appear on the surface of improperly tanned leather.

  3. slang

    Vomit.

  4. Adhesive that is squeezed from a joint under pressure and held across the joint by a fillet, thereby strengthening the joint.

  5. Nonsense or lies.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C2 · Proficient (estimated)
Frequency
Rare

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: To eject forcibly and in a stream

Used this way, spew is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Nearby words

  • disgorge , rarer, so it draws attention

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use spew

  • “The volcano spews out molten rocks every day.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

spew forthspew firespew venom

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • spew outverbCompound term

    Eject or send out in large quantities, also metaphorical.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: to eject forcibly and in a stream

disgorgeRare

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.