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spell

Pronunciation: /spɛl/

The English word “spell” has 20 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. Words or a formula supposed to have magical powers.
  2. A magical effect or influence induced by an incantation or formula.
  3. Speech, discourse.
  4. A shift (of work); (rare) a set of workers responsible for a specific turn of labour.
  5. A definite period (of work or other activity).
  6. An indefinite period of time (usually with a qualifier); by extension, a relatively short distance.

verb

  1. To put under the influence of a spell; to affect by a spell; to bewitch; to fascinate; to charm.
  2. To hanker or yearn (for something).
  3. To write or say the letters that form a word or part of a word.
  4. To read (something) as though letter by letter; to peruse slowly or with effort.
  5. Of letters: to compose (a word).
  6. To clarify; to explain in detail.
  7. To indicate that (some event) will occur; typically followed by a single-word noun.
  8. To constitute; to measure.
  9. To speak, to declaim.
  10. To tell; to relate; to teach.
  11. To notate or indicate a pitch, interval, or chord using a particular enharmonic spelling.
  12. To work in place of (someone).
  13. To rest (someone or something), to give someone or something a rest or break.
  14. To rest from work for a time.

Etymology

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…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.