shovel vs spade

shovel

noun
  • A hand tool with a handle, used for moving portions of material such as earth, snow, and grain from one place to another, with some forms also used for digging. Not to be confused with a spade, which is designed solely for small-scale digging and incidental tasks such as chopping of small roots. 

  • A mechanical part of an excavator with a similar function. 

  • A spade. 

verb
  • To move materials with a shovel. 

  • To move with a shoveling motion. 

spade

noun
  • A garden tool with a handle and a flat blade for digging. Not to be confused with a shovel which is used for moving earth or other materials. 

  • A playing card marked with the symbol ♠. 

  • A castrated man or animal. 

  • A black person. 

  • A cutting instrument used in flensing a whale. 

  • A hart or stag three years old. 

verb
  • To turn over soil with a spade to loosen the ground for planting. 

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