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spad

English

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spad¹

Where it comes from

Shortening of special adviser.

noun spads · SpAd · SpAD

  1. UK, informal A government adviser, often in a political or media role. SPAD Special Advisor

spad²

noun spads

  1. A nail one or two inches long, of iron, brass, tin, or tinner iron, with a hole through the flattened head, used to mark stations in underground surveying.

spad³

noun spads

  1. abbreviation, clipping Clipping of spadona/spadone No. 6.—Spadonas or spads, the first wing-quills of the chick, clipped at about six months.

SPAD⁴

  • /ˈspæd/ UK

Rhymes with -æd

phrase

  1. UK, abbreviation, initialism Initialism of signal passed at danger

noun SPADs

  1. UK An instance of a signal passed at danger. "We found there had been 60 SPADs in the Paddington throat in the previous eight years, and that was all to do with the layout becoming more complex because of the Heathrow Express.
  2. UK, alternative, informal Alternative form of spad (“special advisor in government”).
  3. A relative measurement of the amount of chlorophyll present in a leaf, based on measurements with a SPAD meter produced by Minolta.
  4. abbreviation, initialism Initialism of self-propelled air defense; a self-propelled anti-aircraft vehicle.

verb SPADs · SPADing · SPADed

  1. UK To pass a signal at danger. SPADing is best seen as a systemic problem requiring a systemic solution

SpAd⁵

noun SpAds

  1. UK, informal Alternative letter-case form of spad (“special adviser”).

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MLA

"spad." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/spad. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

spad. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/spad

Chicago

"spad." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/spad.

BibTeX
@misc{spad_2026,
  title = {spad},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/spad},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}