If you were hoping for a cool new word today that you've never heard before, I'm about to disappoint you! Sorry! Would you care to read about ultracrepidarian, memento vivere, or Ship of Theseus today instead?

If you're still with me, let's dive into the word spite! You probably use it fairly often without having to think about it. 

Here's how you might use the verb: "She did it just to spite him."

And here's how you might use the noun: "They did well in spite of the difficulties" (or "They did well despite the difficulties").

So, does spite the noun have the same meaning as spite the verb?

Yes, approximately!

As we'll see in a second, both have to do with disdain, with looking down on things or people, and trying to pettily annoy them or thwart them. So spite is very closely related to the words __spise ("to hate, to look down on") and __spicable ("hateful, worth looking down on").

It's also related to all kinds of words about looking at things, like spy; expect; specimen; spectacle; cir___spect ("careful, as if looking all around"); and soup___ ("a slight little trace of something that you can just barely see").

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)   

The words "spite" and "despite" both trace back to the Latin despicere, "to look down on (someone)."

To spite someone originally meant to look down on them, to strongly dislike them or feel bitterness or hatred toward them. That's still what the noun "spite" means: if you're full of spite, you're full of strong dislike for someone or something, often with a desire to annoy them, to thwart them (to stop them from doing what they want to do), or even to hurt them. 

This noun "spite" often appears in the phrase "in spite of," which, depending on how you interpret it, can mean "thwarting" or "without being thwarted by."

Let's get back to the verb, which first meant "dislike." Over time, it grew to mean not just to have the feeling of disliking someone, but to show it through petty or cruel actions. Today, to spite someone is to annoy, thwart, or hurt them on purpose, often because you dislike them.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

"Spite" is often a noun, usually the uncountable kind: "The song is full of spite."

(Rarely, it's a countable noun, as in "They hold onto many spites." I'll show you an example of this down below, from a novel.)

"Spite" is also often a verb, the transitive kind: "They wrote that song just to spite her."

Other forms: 

The other verb forms are "spited" (which probably sounds weird because you hardly ever hear it) and "spiting."

how to use it:

If you're fluent in English, you don't need me to tell you how to use "spite!" But I bring it up anyway because the connection between the verb and the noun forms is so interesting.

So, when you talk about people doing things "in spite of" other things (or "despite" other things), take a second to enjoy how playful and abstract you're being. Like, if you say, "I fell asleep easily in spite of the noise on the plane," then you're saying that the act of falling asleep easily seem to be snubbing the noise, or perhaps that the noise seems to be snubbing the act of falling asleep. Maybe even both.

For younger readers and newer English speakers, let's look at how to use "spite" in a sentence. Talk about people doing things to spite other people: "He didn't even want that last donut; he ate it just to spite me." Or, talk about people who are full of spite, or people who express their spite for things and other people: "The movie review is full of spite for the soundtrack, which, I admit, is awful."

examples:

"I naively left [my camera] on a counter, thinking my lazy cat wouldn’t leap up just to spite me. But he did. I heard the crash from the bathroom, and when I came out, he was sitting there, smug, probably playing Taylor Swift’s 'Look What You Made Me Do' in his little cat brain."
 — Staff, The Verge, 24 December 2021

"Her time with Tariq's family always felt natural to Laila, effortless, uncomplicated by differences in tribe or language, or by the personal spites and grudges that infected the air at her own home."
   — Khaled Hosseini, A Thousand Splendid Suns, 2007

has this page helped you understand "spite"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this term, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "spite" without saying "ill will" or "bad blood."

try it out:

"In spite of myself, I stared at the accident as I drove past."

"In spite of himself, he ordered the $14.99, 800-calorie slice of cake."

When you think about it, that phrase "in spite of yourself" is pretty strange. Idiomatically, it just means "even though you didn't want to, didn't expect to, or don't usually do that." But it also seems to suggest that you're at odds with yourself: scorning yourself, or holding your own expectations or standards of behavior in contempt.

What's something you've done recently "in spite of yourself"? Was it rude, or nosy, or lazy, or disrespectful, or self-indulgent, or what? Reflecting on this, do you think you actually were spiting yourself, or is that too severe a description?

If you like, use this space to write. (To save your work, copy and paste it into an email or a document.)

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game for this month is Confounding Contronyms!

In each issue, I'll give you two quotes, each with a blank. The same word goes in both blanks—but it means opposite things. Your job is to come up with that word: that slippery little contronym. To see the hints, highlight the hidden white text. To see the answer, scroll to the bottom.

Try this today:

Quote 1: "They all helped _____ Norbert safely into [the harness]."
   — J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, 1997

Quote 2: "His knees _____ed, and he fell into the old pine needles and cones under a tree."
   — Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony, 1977

Hint 1: This word starts with the letter... B

Hint 2: This word means both... "connect" and "collapse."

review this word:

1. As we use it today, the opposite of SPITE, the verb, could be

A. AID or HELP.
B. SALT or WITHER.
C. LIKE or APPRECIATE.

2. "Spite" is perfect when you want a word that's a little stronger than "_____" but a little weaker than "_____."

A. attract .. rivet
B. pique .. malevolence
C. masculinity .. machismo

Answers to the review questions: 1. A 2. B From the game: buckle.

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words. From my blog: On vocabulary...       36 ways to study words.       Why we forget words, & how to remember them.       How to use sophisticated words without being awkward. On writing...       How to improve any sentence.       How to motivate our kids to write.       How to stop procrastinating and start writing.       How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count. From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com. A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.