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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

spay.

To destroy or remove the ovaries or uterus (of a female animal) to prevent pregnancy.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

verb/speɪ/Received-Pronunciation
  1. To destroy or remove the ovaries or uterus (of a female animal) to prevent pregnancy.

    transitive
    We’re having our cat spayed as we don’t want her having kittens.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English spayen, spaien, from the Anglo-Norman espeier, equivalent to the Old French espeer (“to cut with a sword”), from espee (“sword”), whence the Modern French épée.

noun/speɪ/Received-Pronunciation
  1. The act of spaying an animal.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English spayen, spaien, from the Anglo-Norman espeier, equivalent to the Old French espeer (“to cut with a sword”), from espee (“sword”), whence the Modern French épée.

noun
  1. Rare form of spayard.

    form-of · rare
Where this word comes from

See spayard.

verb
  1. Alternative form of spae (to foretell or divine)

    alt-of · alternative
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.