A modern day sponge is made from a kind of plastic that has been filled with bubbles while it is still liquid. The result is that sponges are soft and full of small holes. Sponges are great for cleaning things with, and because of the holes they are very good at soaking up spilled liquids.
Before modern sponges were invented, people used to use sea sponge skeletons as cleaning sponges.
Spores are the way some bacteria, fungi, ferns and algae reproduce. One spore can grow into a whole new organism.
Spores are similar to seeds but they only need one parent not a male and a female parent like is needed to make seeds. Spores are also much smaller than seeds and do not have food reserves inside them.
Something is spotted if it has a pattern of small, round things all over it. Many animals are spotted. If the spots are perfectly round and even they are usually called dots. People will usually call animals covered in dots spotted and clothes covered in spots to be dotted.
Spouse is a gender neutral word used to describe someone you are married to or in a long-term relationship with.
