name
Meaning 1
A surname from German.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
speck
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
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/spɛk/
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US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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homophone: spec
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rhymes with -ɛk
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CMU ARPABET: S P EH1 K Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
noun
Meaning 2
A tiny spot or particle, especially of dirt.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
- a tiny speck of soot
- a. 1864, Walter Savage Landor, quoted in 1971, Ernest Dilworth, Walter Savage Landor, Twayne Publishers, page 88, Onward, and many bright specks bubble up along the blue Aegean; islands, every one of which, if the songs and stories of the pilots are true, is the monument of a greater man than I am.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 3
A very small amount; a particle; a whit.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
- He has not a speck of money.
- not a speck of truth in her story.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: ace, atom, thought, atomy, aught, bissel, bit, crumb, glimpse, dab, damn, dash, diddly, glint, dot, spatter, drop, dusting, fleck, glimmer, hint, flip, flyspeck, grain, halfpennyworth, inch, iota, jot, lick, mite, modicum, molecule, morceau, morsel, mote, ooch, ounce, particle, pennyworth, piece, pinch, relish, scantling, semblance, scent, scintilla, scooch, scrap, scruple, shred, skerrick, skoosh, skosh, sliver, smattering, smidge, smidgen, smidget, smidgy, smitch, smithereen, soupçon, spark, speck, speckle, spot, sprinkle, sprinkling, strain, tad, tidbit, tidge, tinge, tittle, toddick, touch, trace, trifle, tuppence worth, vestige, whiff, whit
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 4
A small etheostomoid fish, Etheostoma stigmaeum, common in the eastern United States.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 5
Fat; lard; fat meat.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 6
A juniper-flavoured ham originally from Tyrol.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 7
The blubber of whales or other marine mammals.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 8
The fat of the hippopotamus.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 9
To mark with specks; to speckle.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
Examples
- paper specked by impurities in the water used in its manufacture
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 10
a very small spot
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- the plane was just a speck in the sky
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: pinpoint
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: spot, speckle, dapple, patch, fleck, maculation
noun
Meaning 11
a slight but appreciable amount
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- this dish could use a touch of garlic
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: touch, hint, tinge, mite, pinch, jot, soupcon
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: small indefinite quantity, small indefinite amount
Narrower terms: snuff
noun
Meaning 12
(nontechnical usage) a tiny piece of anything
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: atom, molecule, particle, corpuscle, mote
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: material, stuff
Narrower terms: grain, grinding, chylomicron, flyspeck, identification particle
verb
Meaning 13
produce specks in or on
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- speck the cloth
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: mark
History
Etymology
* As a German surname, from the noun Speck (“bacon”). * As an English surname, variant of Speake, and perhaps a variant of Peck with an initial -s.
From Middle English spekke, from Old English specca (“small spot, stain”), from the same ultimate source as Proto-Germanic *sprakô (“spark”). Cognate with Low German spaken (“to spot with wet”).
From earlier specke, spycke (probably reinforced by Dutch spek, German Speck), from Middle English spik, spyk, spike, spich, from Old English spic (“bacon; lard; fat”), from Proto-West Germanic *spik, from Proto-Germanic *spiką (“bacon”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Späk, Dutch spek, German Speck, Icelandic spik.
Across languages
Translations
55 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Bulgarian: петънце (petǎnce) — tiny spot
- Chinese Mandarin: 斑點 /斑点 (bāndiǎn) — tiny spot
- Czech: smítko — tiny spot
- Czech: tečka — tiny spot
- Czech: skvrnka — tiny spot
- Dutch: vlek de — tiny spot
- Dutch: stip — tiny spot
- Estonian: täpp — tiny spot
- Estonian: kübe — tiny spot
- Finnish: täplä — tiny spot
- Finnish: tahra — tiny spot
- Finnish: tuhru — tiny spot
- Finnish: suhru — tiny spot
- French: point — tiny spot
- Galician: lixo — tiny spot
- German: Fleck — tiny spot
- Irish: cáithnín — tiny spot
- Irish: ballóg — tiny spot
- Italian: macchiolina — tiny spot
- Japanese: 斑点 (hanten) — tiny spot
- Korean: 얼룩 (eolluk) — tiny spot
- Latin: macula — tiny spot
- Māori: ngata — tiny spot
- Māori: tongi — tiny spot
- Māori: kora — tiny spot
- Plautdietsch: Plak — tiny spot
- Portuguese: pontinho — tiny spot
- Russian: пылинка (pylinka) — tiny spot
- Russian: пятнышко (pjatnyško) — tiny spot
- Spanish: mota — tiny spot
- Bulgarian: частица (častica) — small thing
- Czech: zrnko — small thing
- Finnish: hitunen — small thing
- Finnish: hiukkanen — small thing
- Finnish: rahtu — small thing
- Finnish: rahtunen — small thing
- Galician: lixo — small thing
- Galician: argueiro — small thing
- Irish: cáithnín — small thing
- Persian: کوچولو — small thing
- Persian: کَمَکْ — small thing
- Sanskrit: कण (kaṇa) — small thing
- Bulgarian: тлъстина (tlǎstina) — fat, lard
- Estonian: pekk — fat, lard
- Estonian: rasv — fat, lard
- Finnish: ihra — fat, lard
- Finnish: läski — fat, lard
- Italian: grasso — fat, lard
- Italian: lardo — fat, lard
- Russian: сало (salo) — fat, lard
- Finnish: speck-kinkku — juniper-flavoured ham
- Italian: speck — juniper-flavoured ham
- Latin: spectile — juniper-flavoured ham
- Finnish: traani — blubber of whales
- Finnish: virtahevon ihra — fat of hippopotamus
Real reading context