1
as in floods
a great flow of water or of something that overwhelms
a spate of words has been published on this controversial topic
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in loads
a considerable amount
an off-color remark that drew a spate of complaints from TV viewers
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of spates
When spates of violence like that occur, Norman said the department increases patrols in that area, drawing on resources from outside the area to do so.
—
David Clarey, jsonline.com, 28 Aug. 2025
David Clarey, jsonline.com, 28 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for spates
Noun
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Federal authorities from several offices also conducted rescues and life-saving efforts after floods in San Antonio, Texas, DHS said.—
Louis Casiano,
FOXNews.com,
9 Jan. 2026
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Take the heat waves, droughts and floods that dogged a quarter of the European Union last summer.—
Jasmin Malik Chua,
Sourcing Journal,
8 Jan. 2026
Noun
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As more loads were seized through the summer and fall of 2024, Wedding began to rely increasingly on one of Toronto’s most colorful criminal defense attorneys, Deepak Paradkar, for information, according to the indictment.—
Jesse Hyde,
Rolling Stone,
10 Jan. 2026
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In some of the tunnels that cut through the mountains, there were only a couple of inches to spare on either side of the loads.—
Stanley Stewart,
Travel + Leisure,
10 Jan. 2026
Noun
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The report alleges the scrape includes 256 million rows of track metadata and 86 million audio files, to be distributed on P2P networks in bulk torrents totaling roughly 300 terabytes.—
Mitchell Peters,
Billboard,
21 Dec. 2025
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Officials have conducted dozens of water rescues as debris and mudslides have closed highways and raging torrents have washed out roads and bridges.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
13 Dec. 2025
Noun
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Having designed dozens of homes and studied many more, interior designers become accustomed to spotting some of the same home accessories over and over again.—
Sarah Lyon,
The Spruce,
11 Jan. 2026
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While this design comes in a dozen colors, the Amazon-exclusive Black Cherry hue is swoonworthy!—
Sophie Dodd,
Travel + Leisure,
11 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Lightweight and easy to flatten when empty, this packable tote from Bagsmart is a steal for $26 and features tons of pockets for stashing all of your travel essentials.—
Sophie Dodd,
Travel + Leisure,
11 Jan. 2026
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Also, didn’t Trump just pardon Juan Orlando Hernández, the former Honduran President, who had been sentenced to forty-five years in federal prison for conspiring to import four hundred tons of cocaine into the United States?—
Daniel Immerwahr,
New Yorker,
10 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Shelf ice forms along beaches where ice piles up after being pushed to shore.—
Sarah Moore,
Freep.com,
5 Jan. 2026
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Amid a large snowstorm in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, one curious dog dived into piles of snow in a now-viral video.—
Fernando Cervantes Jr,
USA Today,
2 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Act fast to shop Amazon’s current hottest deals because prices aren’t guaranteed to last through the month.—
Chaise Sanders,
Travel + Leisure,
10 Jan. 2026
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Keep scrolling to check out more of the best Le Creuset deals happening at Amazon.—
Isabel Garcia,
PEOPLE,
10 Jan. 2026
Noun
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In a field experiment with hundreds of consultants, GPT-4 improved speed and quality on some knowledge tasks while performance dropped on other, seemingly similar tasks just outside its strengths.—
Arkansas Online,
Arkansas Online,
8 Jan. 2026
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In San Francisco, hundreds of people gathered for a protest and march to speak out against ICE, with many expressing anger and outrage about the fatal shooting in Minneapolis.—
Andrea Nakano,
CBS News,
8 Jan. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Spates.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/spates. Accessed 12 Jan. 2026.
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