MEANING
1. An unusually large number of similar events occurring within a short period.
2. A sudden strong increase in the amount or flow of water in a river.
Use it for
describing a sudden concentration of incidents; distinguishing a burst of events from a long-term rate; showing repeated occurrences without inventing a shared causeNames a sudden cluster of events or a river’s swollen flow, distinguishing temporal concentration from simple abundance. Writing functions: Pattern / Landscape.
Words that belong together
- a spate of complaints
- a spate of incidents
- a recent spate
On the page
A spate of anonymous letters arrived before the hearing.
The apparent spate may reflect better reporting rather than a change in the underlying rate.
By morning the river was in spate, and the stepping stones had disappeared.
The spate carried branches through the gap where the footbridge had stood.
Word forms
- Base
- spate
Usage notes
Usually singular count noun for events: a spate of. River-flow use commonly uncountable, as in in spate; separate floods can be spates. Register: neutral. Commonness: moderately common (qualitative editorial estimate, informed by dictionaries/corpus).
Practice this word in a sentenceYour margin notes
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