Spica

name, noun

name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A spike (kind of inflorescence in which sessile flowers are arranged on an unbranched elongated axis).
  2. 2
    A spur.
  3. 3
    A kind of bandage passing, by successive turns and crosses, from an extremity to the trunk; a spiral bandage with reversed turns.
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A binary star in the constellation Virgo; alpha (α) Virginis.

    "The constellation Virgo is a Y-shaped group, of which α, the star at the foot, is the well-known Spica, a star of the first magnitude."

Example

More examples

"The constellation Virgo is a Y-shaped group, of which α, the star at the foot, is the well-known Spica, a star of the first magnitude."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Learned borrowing from Latin spica.

Etymology 2

From Latin spīca virginis (“Virgo's ear of grain”).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.