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.

Multiword verbs with spell

• spell out Phrasal verb A1

  to explain something clearly and in full detail

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Spell comes from Old English spel, “story” or “speech,” a sense preserved in gospel. By the late 16th century it had developed the magical sense of words used to invoke powers, through late Middle English nightspell, meaning special words for protection at night. The spelling sense developed as the verb moved from “speak” or “tell” to reading aloud with difficulty or spelling out words, and then to using the correct letters in a word.

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”).

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary