spiky.
Of a plant: producing spikes (“ears (as of corn); inflorescences in which sessile flowers are arranged on unbranched elongated axes”).
Meaning & usage
Of a plant: producing spikes (“ears (as of corn); inflorescences in which sessile flowers are arranged on unbranched elongated axes”).
Of a plant part: resembling a spike of a plant (see above).
Where this word comes from
From spike (“kind of inflorescence in which sessile flowers are arranged on an unbranched elongated axis”) + -y (suffix forming adjectives with the sense “having the quality of”). Spike is derived from Middle English spik, spike (“ear of grain; clove of garlic; plant having spikes; plant of the genus Valeriana, especially Valeriana officinalis; plant of the genus Lavandula, lavender”), from Latin spīca (“ear, head, or spike of grain; plant spike”) (feminine) (also rarely spīcum (neuter) and spīcus (masculine)), possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *spey- (“long; sharp; thin”).
Having one or more spikes; spiny.
Resembling spikes: erect and having sharp points; spikelike.
Of a person or their nature: difficult to deal with; abrasive, hostile, unfriendly.
a spiky personality
Of a thing: not smooth; rough, sharp.
Excessively high church (“practising a formal style of liturgy and emphasizing continuity with Catholicism”).
Where this word comes from
From spike (“piece of pointed metal, etc.”) + -y (suffix forming adjectives with the sense “having the quality of”). Spike is derived from Middle English spik, spike (“large metal (usually iron) nail; thing shaped like such a nail”); further etymology uncertain, possibly from Middle Dutch spiker (“large nail”), Middle Low German spiker (“large nail”), or Old Norse spík (“spike; sprig”), all possibly from Latin spīca (“ear, head, or spike of grain; plant spike”) (see further at etymology 1), or from Proto-Germanic *spīkō (“large nail, spike”), both ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *spey- (“long; sharp; thin”).
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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.