😤 Pique: Now I'm Curious!
PIQUE most nearly means: A) polish; B) soothe; C) glimpse; D) provoke. Answer inside. 👉️
One interesting fact is all it takes.
Maybe you hear about Bigfoot for the first time. Or someone mentions the Chupacabra. Or you stumble across a documentary about the Mapinguari, a legendary creature from the Amazon rainforest. Suddenly you’re reading everything you can find.
That feeling is exactly what pique describes.
The word comes from a French verb meaning to prick, as if with a needle. Originally, if you piqued someone, you irritated or offended them. Today, however, it is much more commonly used to mean to spark curiosity.
📚️ Definition of Pique
Pique (verb): To stimulate or arouse (interest, curiosity); also, to irritate or wound someone’s pride. Example: the movie trailer piqued my interest. As a noun, pique means a feeling of resentment from wounded pride.
🗣️ Pronunciation of Pique
IPA: /piːk/ (See IPA key)
Phonetic: PEEK (sounds exactly like peak and peek)
Fun fact: Picante is etymologically related to pique. Both words ultimately come from a verb meaning to prick or to sting.
📰 Examples of Pique
Here are some examples of the word pique:
The advertisement did a good job of piquing my interest.
Publishers know that a headline has only a few seconds to pique a reader’s curiosity, which is why we see so much clickbait online now.
In a fit of pique, Rizabel wrote, “What part of ‘birthday’ made you think I wanted to spend the afternoon assembling IKEA furniture?”
Spelling alert: Something piques your interest—it never “peaks” or “peeks” it. This common homophone mix-up is a classic error that will certainly pique your spelling-bee coach.
🗣️ Common Collocations of Pique
A collocation is a group of words often found together in usage, for example, figment of one’s imagination, extenuating circumstances, or inclement weather.
pique one’s interest
pique one’s curiosity
a fit of pique
out of pique
pique someone’s pride
Quiz answer: D, provoke.