spell

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To say or write the letters of a word in the correct order.

   Could you spell your last name for me?

2. 2
   noun

   A set of magic words believed to have magical power.

   The witch cast a spell to turn him into a frog.

3. 3
   verb

   To be a sign of something, usually something bad.

   These dark clouds spell trouble for our picnic.

4. 4
   noun

   A short period of time, especially of a particular kind of weather or activity.

   We had a long spell of hot weather in July.

From Middle English spell, spel, from Old English spell (“news, story”), from Proto-Germanic *spellą (“speech, account, tale”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)pel- (“to tell”) or from Proto-Indo-European *bʰel- (“to speak, to sound”) with the s-mobile prefix. Cognate with dialectal German Spill, Icelandic spjall (“discussion, talk”), spjalla (“to discuss, to talk”), guðspjall (“gospel”) and Albanian fjalë (“word”).

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