noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A small, or secondary spike, especially one of many in the inflorescence of a grass or sedge.
2. 2
   A reproductive shoot system that is the ultimate and congested inflorescence, especially in grasses, a racemose unit consisting of one or a few closely-packed florets born along a rachilla and subtended by two glumes wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

amentbramblebriarbrierbristleburr

Example

More examples

"I have an oat spikelet across my throat."

Etymology

From spike + -let.

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