1.
spades (suit in a deck of playing cards) ♠
One of the four suits in a standard deck of playing cards, marked with a black spade symbol.
スペード is a loanword from English "spade," referring to the playing-card suit only. Unlike English, where "spade" can also mean a digging tool or carry various idiomatic meanings, the Japanese word is essentially restricted to the card-suit sense.
FOUR CARD SUITS (Japanese):
- スペード ♠ — spades
- ハート ♥ — hearts
- ダイヤ / ダイヤモンド ♦ — diamonds
- クラブ / クローバー ♣ — clubs (in Japan, "clover" is also commonly used for the club shape)
Common collocations
- スペードのエース: ace of spades
- スペードのキング / クイーン / ジャック: king/queen/jack of spades
- スペードの札: spade card
- スペードが出る: a spade comes up
Scope notes
- スペード in Japanese does NOT mean "shovel" or "digging tool" — for those, use シャベル or 鋤.
- The English idiom "call a spade a spade" does not have a direct Japanese equivalent using スペード.