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# spice

«spice» in Mova's school dictionary: **a dried part of a plant, such as seeds, bark or roots…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a spice, spices; spice — uncountable for excitement); verb (spice, spices, spiced, spicing; spice up)

### meaning for a pupil

1) A spice is a dried part of a plant, such as seeds, bark or roots, used to give food a strong flavour: pepper, cinnamon, ginger, cumin. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spice/#m1)

2) Spice also means excitement or interest that makes something less boring: «variety is the spice of life». [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spice/#m2)

3) To spice food is to add spices to it. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spice/#m3)

4) To spice something up is to make it more exciting or interesting. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spice/#m4)

### sense in the lessons

In everyday cooking and stories about markets and trade; in history lessons, spices were traded over long distances and were very valuable. In science, smell and taste. Phrases: herbs and spices, spice rack, mixed spice (UK), spice it up, a hint of spice.

### examples

- Cinnamon is my favourite spice. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spice/#x1)
- Mum keeps her spices in little jars on a rack. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spice/#x2)
- Add a pinch of spice to the soup. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spice/#x3)
- The ships carried spices from faraway lands. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spice/#x4)
- Let's spice up the party with some games. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spice/#x5)
- Variety is the spice of life. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spice/#x6)
- Gran made spiced apple cake. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spice/#x7)
- Some spices, like chilli, make food hot. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spice/#x8)
- She smells of spice and honey. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/S/spice/#x9)

### note

Countable for kinds of spice (many spices), uncountable for the stuff (a bit of spice). Herbs are usually the leaves (basil, mint); spices are usually seeds, bark or roots. «Spice» is also a slang name for a dangerous drug — keep away from anything called that.

### In the corpora

- [Keepers sometimes spray perfume or spices in an enclosure, because new smells give cats something to explore, like a new toy.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/82-big-cats-house-snow-leopards-jaguars-small-cats/12/)
- [Nuts, beans and many spices are seeds or other plant parts that plants pack with food or guard with strong tastes.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/348-nuts-beans-seeds-and-spices/0/)
- [By the 1700s spices became much cheaper in Europe as more were shipped by sea and plants were grown in new places.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/geography/29-the-spice-trade-and-the-indian-ocean/18/)
- [Spices were dear in medieval Europe but not usually worth as much as gold.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/70-trade-why-people-swap-and-the-great-trade-routes/5/)
- [Spices were expensive in medieval Europe but not usually worth their weight in gold, and they were not used to hide rotten meat.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/70-trade-why-people-swap-and-the-great-trade-routes/21/)

### Trees and pragmatics

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