VocabauraVOCABAURA

spice

noun · verb

Simple meaning

Any of a variety of pungent aromatic vegetable substances used for flavoring food.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

spys
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈspaɪs

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.

noun

  1. Any of a variety of pungent aromatic vegetable substances used for flavoring food

  2. countableuncountable

    Aromatic or pungent plant matter (usually dried) used to season or flavor food.

  3. Aromatic substances of vegetable origin used as a preservative

    “They added various spices to preserve the meat over the winter months.”

  4. uncountable

    The quality of being spicy.

  5. figurativeuncountable

    Appeal, interest; an attribute that makes something appealing, interesting, or engaging.

  6. An aromatic odor.

verb

  1. Add herbs or spices to

  2. transitive

    To add spice or spices to; season.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
General English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Any of a variety of pungent aromatic vegetable substances used for flavoring food

Used this way, spice 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
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

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

More ways to use spice

  • “Spice up the evening by inviting a belly dancer.”verb

Share your sentence

Write your own example sentence using “spice”. We review each one before it appears.

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Variety / aromatic

spice cakespice powderspice mixture

Other combinations

spice rackmixed spicespice tradesome spicepie spice

Tap the highlighted word to open its own entry.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • spice islandsnounCompound term

    A group of island in eastern Indonesia between Celebes and New Guinea.

  • spice racknounCompound term

    A rack for displaying containers filled with spices.

  • spice treenounCompound term

    Tree bearing aromatic bark or berries.

  • spice upverbCompound term

    Add herbs or spices to.

  • spice bushnounCompound term

    Deciduous shrub of the eastern United States having highly aromatic leaves and bark and yellow flowers followed by scarlet or yellow berries.

  • spice cakenounCompound term

    Cake flavored with spices.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

Use This Word

See how this word sounds in a real sentence.

Ask Vocabaura

Understand the word your way.

What Does It Mean Here?

Words can change meaning depending on context.

Use it yourself

Keep learning “spice” by choosing the kind of practice you need next.

Want to type words like this one without looking at the keyboard? Each typing round draws from words you've learned, saved or need to review. Follow the free Learn to Type lessons and type your own vocabulary with confidence.

Know the meaning? Practice vocabulary in real situations.

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.