Sparked

Sparked is the past tense and past participle form of the verb spark. It commonly means to emit or produce a spark, to ignite something with a spark, or to cause something to begin or escalate.

In physical and technical contexts, sparked describes ignition events or electrical discharges: a spark may ignite a fuel‑air mixture in an internal‑combustion engine, or arcing can spark across a broken circuit.

Metaphorically, sparked is used to indicate that something provoked or stimulated a reaction: for example, “The report sparked public debate” or “the incident sparked a wave of media coverage.”

Grammatical notes: it is a regular verb; past tense sparked and present participle sparking. It forms phrases such as sparked by, sparked interest, sparked controversy.

Related terms include spark plug, ignition, arcing, and ignition systems; the word is widely used in journalism, science, and everyday speech.