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Added 9 October 2026

spar

/spɑː/ noun

noun Definition from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about spar at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

A rafter of a roof.
A thick pole or piece of wood.
A bar of wood used to fasten a door.

verb

To bolt, bar.
To supply or equip (a vessel) with spars.

verb

To fight, especially as practice for martial arts or hand-to-hand combat.
To strike with the feet or spurs, as cocks do.
To contest in words; to wrangle.

noun

A sparring session; a preliminary fight, as in boxing or cock-fighting.
A friend, a mate, a pal.

Origin

From Middle English sparre (“spar, rafter, beam”) (noun), sparren (“to close, bar”) (verb), from Middle Dutch sparre or Middle Low German Sparre, all ultimately from Proto-Germanic *sparrô (“stake, beam”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)par- (“beam, log”). Compare Dutch spar (“balk”), German Sparren (“rafter, spar”), Danish sparre (“spar”), Albanian shparr, shpardh (“kind of oak”). Perhaps also compare spear.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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