Meaning of spell in English

spell

verb

/spel/ us

/spel/

spell verb (FORM WORDS)

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A2 [ I or T ] spelled or UK also spelt | spelled or UK also spelt

to form a word or words with the letters in the correct order:

How do you spell receive?

Shakespeare did not always spell his own name the same way.

spell something (out) Our address is 1520 Main Street, Albuquerque. Shall I spell that (out) (= say in the correct order the letters that form the word) for you?

I think it's important that children should be taught to spell.

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Could you spell your name again, please?
Some words are more difficult to spell than others.
Does she spell her name with a C or with a K?
She always spells my name wrong.
He even spelled his own client's name wrongly.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Writing & typing

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spell verb (RESULT)

spell disaster, trouble, etc.

to cause something bad to happen in the future:

The new regulations could spell disaster for small businesses.

spell verb (DO INSTEAD)

[ T ] mainly US spelled | spelled

to do something that someone else would usually be doing, especially in order to allow them to rest:

You've been driving for a while - do you want me to spell you?

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Replacing and exchanging

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Phrasal verb

spell something out

spell

noun [ C ]

/spel/ us

/spel/

spell noun [C] (PERIOD)

a period of time for which an activity or condition lasts continuously:

for a spell I lived in Cairo for a spell.

have a spell as She had a brief spell as captain of the team.

dizzy spell I keep having/getting dizzy spells (= periods of feeling as if I'm turning around).

a short period of a particular type of weather:

a spell of dry weather

The weather forecast is for dry, sunny spells.

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In this current cold spell, many old people are dying needlessly of hypothermia.
It looks as if we are in for a settled spell this week.
After a brief spell in the army, he started working as a teacher.
He had a brief spell in the army.
She had a couple of spells in a mental hospital.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Periods of time - general words

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You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Weather & climate - general words

spell noun [C] (DO INSTEAD)

a period when you do something that someone else would usually be doing, especially in order to allow them to rest:

spells (with) If we take spells (with) doing the painting, it won't seem like such hard work.

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Replacing and exchanging

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spell noun [C] (MAGIC)

spoken words that are thought to have magical power, or (the condition of being under) the influence or control of such words:

cast/put a spell on The witch cast/put a spell on the prince and he turned into a frog.

break the spell A beautiful girl would have to kiss him to break (= stop) the spell.

under a spell Sleeping Beauty lay under the wicked fairy's spell until the prince woke her with a kiss.

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Magic

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Idiom

be under someone's spell

(Definition of spell from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

spell | American Dictionary

spell

verb

/spel/

spell verb (FORM WORDS)

Add to word list Add to word list

[ I/T ]

to form a word or words with the letters in the correct order:

[ I ] As a child he never learned to spell.

[ T ] Send it to Dr. Mikolajczyk – I’ll spell that name for you (= say the letters that form the word).

spell verb (RESULT)

[ T ]

to have usually something unpleasant as a result:

This cold weather could spell trouble for gardeners.

Phrasal verbs

spell something out

spell

noun [ C ]

/spel/

spell noun [C] (PERIOD)

a period of time during which an activity or condition lasts:

a spell of wet weather

She lived in London for a short spell in the 1980s.

spell noun [C] (POWER)

a magic power produced by speaking a set of words or taking a specific set of actions:

He was placed under a spell that could be broken only when the princess kissed him.

(Definition of spell from the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of spell

spell

The benefits of incorporating spelling into beginning reading instruction.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

There is a growing interest in theoretical aspects of spelling and in comparisons across languages and writing systems.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

They did not find strong evidence for early use of analogies either in spelling or in reading.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The problem may seem dreary but it still needs spelling out in detail.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

On the role of spelling in morpheme recognition : experimental studies with children and adults.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

He concluded that twelve-year-old children divided inflected, but not derived words into component morphemes when they are spelling.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

As we show below, developing spelling perception is mediated by typological traits of the language being learnt.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Due to phonological neutralizations, both orthographies contain homophonous graphemes, which provide alternative spellings for the same phoneme and constitute sources for spelling errors.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

A second focal point relates to the impact of typological features on spelling development.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

In all conditions, learning is going on and the number of spelling errors is decreasing.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Since the morphological rules are extremely simple and transparently reflected in the orthography, spelling inflected words should be much easier, as compared to spelling stems.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

One of the clear conclusions that emerges from this study is that spelling development is not a mere technical skill of phoneme to grapheme conversion.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Teachers' perception of spelling patterns and children's spelling errors : a crosslinguistic perspective.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

Each correctly spelled target letter received 1 point, and each incorrectly spelled one received 0 points.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

The argument, as she now spells it out, would invoke the "fundamental right" line of equal protection cases.

From the Cambridge English Corpus

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These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.