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# spade

«spade» in Mova's school dictionary: **a garden tool with a long handle and a flat metal blade…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 2 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a spade, spades)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A spade is a garden tool with a long handle and a flat metal blade, used for digging. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spade/#m1)

2) A spade is a small plastic tool for digging in sand at the beach. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spade/#m2)

3) Spades are one of the four suits in a pack of playing cards, shown by a black ♠ shape. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spade/#m3)

### sense in the lessons

In gardening and science lessons, children use a spade to dig holes for planting. At the beach, a bucket and spade build sandcastles. In card games, spades are one suit. Phrases: «bucket and spade», «call a spade a spade» (say things plainly and honestly).

### examples

- Dad dug a hole with the spade to plant the tree. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spade/#x1)
- I took my bucket and spade to the beach. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spade/#x2)
- The ace of spades is a black card. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spade/#x3)
- Clean the spade after you use it. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spade/#x4)
- We used a spade to dig up potatoes. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spade/#x5)
- She likes to call a spade a spade and say what she thinks. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spade/#x6)
- There are 13 spades in a pack of cards. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spade/#x7)
- The spade struck against a hard substance; it was a stone, that shone dazzling white. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spade/#x8)

### note

Countable noun: «a spade, spades». A spade has a flat, straight blade for digging; a «shovel» has a scooped blade for moving loose things like snow or sand (people often mix them up). In maths, a pack of 52 cards has 4 suits of 13, so 13 spades.

### In the corpora

- [Porpoises are smaller cousins of dolphins with rounded heads, no long beak and spade-shaped teeth.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/27-dolphins-porpoises-and-seals/11/)
- [Charlie stands in the garden with a spade, grinning: "Cut a worm in half and you get TWO worms.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/myths/9-small-creatures-and-creepy-crawlies/0/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «spade» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spade/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.