place vs spot

place

noun
  • A location or position in space. 

  • An inhabited area: a village, town, or city. 

  • Numerically, the column counting a certain quantity. 

  • A state of mind. 

  • The position of first, second, or third at the finish, especially the second position. 

  • An area of the body, especially the skin. 

  • An open space, particularly a city square, market square, or courtyard. 

  • The position of a contestant in a competition. 

  • Reception; effect; implying the making room for. 

  • The area one occupies, particularly somewhere to sit. 

  • A role or purpose; a station. 

  • A street, sometimes but not always surrounding a public place, square, or plaza of the same name. 

  • The area where one lives: one's home, formerly (chiefly) country estates and farms. 

  • A particular location in a book or document, particularly the current location of a reader. 

  • The position as a member of a sports team. 

  • Ordinal relation; position in the order of proceeding. 

  • An area to urinate and defecate: an outhouse or lavatory. 

  • Any area of the earth: a region. 

verb
  • To arrange for or to make (a bet). 

  • To finish second, especially of horses or dogs. 

  • To sing (a note) with the correct pitch. 

  • To earn a given spot in a competition. 

  • To rank at (a certain position, often followed by an ordinal) as in a horse race. 

  • To remember where and when (an object or person) has been previously encountered. 

  • To establish a call (connection by telephone or similar). 

  • To put (an object or person) in a specific location. 

  • To recruit or match an appropriate person for a job, or a home for an animal for adoption, etc. 

  • To place-kick (a goal). 

spot

noun
  • A location or area. 

  • A bill of five-dollar or ten-dollar denomination in dollars. 

  • A bright lamp; a spotlight. 

  • The southern redfish, or red horse (Sciaenops ocellatus), which has a spot on each side at the base of the tail. 

  • The act of spotting or noticing something. 

  • An official determination of placement. 

  • A brief advertisement or program segment on television. 

  • Penalty spot. 

  • A food fish (Leiostomus xanthurus) of the Atlantic coast of the United States, with a black spot behind the shoulders and fifteen oblique dark bars on the sides. 

  • A variety of the common domestic pigeon, so called from a spot on its head just above the beak. 

  • An autosoliton. 

  • A round or irregular patch on the surface of a thing having a different color, texture etc. and generally round in shape. 

  • A parking space. 

  • One who spots (supports or assists a maneuver, or is prepared to assist if safety dictates); a spotter. 

  • Any of various points marked on the table, from which balls are played, in snooker, pool, billiards, etc. 

  • A difficult situation. 

  • A pimple, papule or pustule. 

  • A stain or disfiguring mark. 

  • A decimal point; point. 

  • Any of the balls marked with spots in the game of pool, which one player aims to pot, the other player taking the stripes. 

  • A small, unspecified amount or quantity. 

adj
  • Available on the spot; for immediate payment or delivery. 

verb
  • To cut or chip (timber) in preparation for hewing. 

  • To retouch a photograph on film to remove minor flaws. 

  • To keep the head and eyes pointing in a single direction while turning. 

  • To place an object at a location indicated by a spot. 

  • To support or assist a maneuver, or to be prepared to assist if safety dictates. 

  • To remove, or attempt to remove, a stain. 

  • To loan a small amount of money to someone. 

  • To stain; to leave a spot (on). 

  • To see, find; to pick out, notice, locate, distinguish or identify. 

  • To position (a locomotive or car) at a predetermined point, e.g., for loading or unloading. 

  • To position (an aircraft) on the deck of an aircraft carrier ready for launch by catapult. 

  • To stain; to blemish; to taint; to disgrace; to tarnish, as reputation. 

How often have the words place and spot occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )