Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Sprat |
SpratNoun1. Small fatty European fish; usually smoked or canned like sardines. 2. Small herring processed like a sardine. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "sprat" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1602. (references) |
Etymology: Sprat \Sprat\, noun. [from Old English expression sprot, sprotte, Dutch sprot; akin to German sprotte.]. (Websters 1913) |
| Domain | Definition |
Literature | Sprat To bait with a sprat to catch a mackerel. To give a small thing under the hope of getting something much more valuable. The French say, "A pea for a bean." (See Garvies .). Source: Brewer's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonym: SpratSynonym: brisling (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Barter | Speculate, give a sprat to catch a herring; buy in the cheapest and sell in the dearest market, buy low and sell high; corner the market; rig the market, stag the market. |
Unskillfulness | Sprat sent out to catch a whale, much ado about nothing, wild-goose chase. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Sprat |
| English words defined with "sprat": Brit, britt ♦ Garvie. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "sprat": Bird in the hand ♦ Hook, Hooks ♦ JACK SPRAT ♦ Pasch Eggs. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Sprat" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. French (sprat), Serbo-Croatian (floor, story). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Clever | All false practices and affectations of knowledge are more odious than any want or defect of knowledge can be. (references; author: Sprat) | |
Movie/TV Titles | ||
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit |  | Pogo]. I spose a educated li'l sprat like you is a book worm. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Sprat | All false practices and affectations of knowledge are more odious than any want or defect of knowledge can be. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| "Sprat" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 64.71% of the time. "Sprat" is used about 17 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 64.71% | 11 | 106,044 |
| Noun (proper) | 35.29% | 6 | 143,867 |
| Total | 100.00% | 17 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "sprat": sprat borer ♦ sprat loon ♦ sprat mew ♦ sprat sent out to catch a whale ♦ throw a sprat to catch a mackarel ♦ throw a sprat to catch a whale. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
jack sprat | 31 |
sprat | 4 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "sprat"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | peshk i imët, njeri pa rëndësi (pipsqueak), fëmijë i dobët (reckling). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | سمك الرنكة (pilchard), شخص تافه (bauble, black sheep, bugger, crumb, deformity, dog, insect, morsel, myrmidon, nitwit, peanut, pipsqueak, rag, swab, toad, trash). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | хамсия, цаца, дребосък (elf, midget, minikin, minim, peanut, shorty, shrimp), дребна риба (peanut, small fry). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 西鲱. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | šprota. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | europæisk brisling (brisling, European sprat), brisling (brisling, European sprat, garvock(Scotland), stuifin(Ireland)). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | sprot (brisling, European sprat, garvock(Scotland), stuifin(Ireland)), bliek (bream, brisling, common bream, European sprat, freshwater bream, garvock(Scotland), stuifin(Ireland)). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | kilohaili (brisling, European sprat). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | sprat (European sprat). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Sprotte (brisling). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | σαρδέλα (sardine), γάβροσ, μικρή ρέγγα, παπαλίνα (brisling, European sprat). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | "'י' (minnow, tiddler). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | szittyó (rush, sedge), spratt. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | spratto (brisling, European sprat, garvock(Scotland), stuifin(Ireland)). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 작은 물 기. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | sprot. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | atspray espadilha (whitebait). (various references) шпрота. (various references) garbhag. (various references) sleđica. (various references) sardineta (brisling, European sprat, garvock(Scotland), stuifin(Ireland)), espadín (dress sword, picklock, whitebait). (various references) skarpsill (whitebait). (various references) ปลาทะเลชนิ"หนึ่ง. (various references) hamsi gibi küçük bir balık, çaçabalığı. (various references) шпрота, кілька (anchovy, couple, several, some, something). (various references) người tầm thường (cipher, jack sprat, nobody, nothing, philistine, scrub), người nhỏ nhen (jack sprat). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | Clupea sprattus, Sprattus sprattus, Sprattus sprattus (Linnaeus). (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "sprat": sprats, sprattle, sprattled, sprattles, sprattling. (additional references) | |
| |
"Sprat" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: ishrat, Sarrat, Sarratt, Sarraut, scrat, seprut, Sermatt, Sorata, sparat, spart, speath, sphat, sprate, spraw, spret, sprich, sprif, sproat, sprot, spruta, sret, sroat, strat. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| Words ending with "at": Gnat, LAT, Skat, VAT, What. (additional references) |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
Direct Anagrams: parts, prats, strap, tarps, traps. | |
| Words within the letters "a-p-r-s-t" | |
-1 letter: arts, pars, part, past, pats, prat, raps, rapt, rasp, rats, spar, spat, star, taps, tarp, tars, trap, tsar. | |
-2 letters: apt, ars, art, asp, par, pas, pat, rap, ras, rat, sap, sat, spa, tap, tar, tas. | |
-3 letters: ar, as, at, pa, ta. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-p-r-s-t" | |
+1 letter: paster, pastor, pastry, paters, prates, rapist, repast, satrap, sprats, straps, tapers, tapirs, tramps, trapes. | |
+2 letters: airpost, armpits, arpents, captors, carpets, departs, dispart, entraps, esparto, harpist, imparts, mispart, palters, parents, pargets, parrots, partans, parties, partons, pastern, pasters, pastier, pastors, pasture, patrols, patrons, patters, patzers, persalt, petards, piaster, piastre, pirates, plaster, platers, portals, postwar, praters, preacts, precast, proteas, psalter, psaltry, ragtops, rapists, raptors, repasts, repeats, restamp, retapes, satraps, satrapy, seaport, sparest, spartan, spatter, spectra, spirant, stamper, stapler, startup, subpart, tampers, tappers, tapster, tarpans, tarpons, tephras, threaps, traipse, trapans, trepans, unstrap, updarts, uprates, upstair, upstare, upstart, uptears. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Quotations: Familiar | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Expressions 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Translations: Ancient 14. Derivations 15. Rhymes 16. Anagrams | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
