Meaning & use

in spades

phrase·Advanced

To a very great degree; abundantly, used to emphasize that something is true in large measure.

See it in a sentence

The team had talent in spades, but they still needed to learn how to work together.

After months of practice, her confidence returned in spades.

A note on using this word

In spades comes from card games, where spades is the highest-ranking suit in certain bidding games, giving the phrase its sense of maximum degree.

Words with a similar meaning

abundantlygreatly

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “in spades”, then compare your use with the examples above.

Your draft stays on this page and is not sent anywhere.