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PlainSpell

expel

ex·pel/ɪkˈspɛl/verb

expel is spelled E-X-P-E-L, 2 syllables: ex·pel. The wrong spelling people search most is expell: about 140 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 10 of all searches for the word. Expel is a verb meaning “To eject”.

How many letters and syllables are in expel?

Letters5: E-X-P-E-L
Syllables2: ex·pel
In writing1.8 times per million words; the 20,629th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, expell, about 140 Bing searches a month (all of them)

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).

How do you spell expel?

Expel is spelled E-X-P-E-L. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 10 of the searches for expel in either form.

expelthe right spelling990 searches a month
expellan extra l140 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is expel?

Expel appears 1.8 times per million words in written English, the 20,629th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce expel?

  • /ɪkˈspɛl/

Expel has 2 syllables, split ex·pel in writing.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-expel.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of expel

  • expels present, singular, he/she/it
  • expelling participle, present
  • expelled participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does expel mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

verb

  1. 1

    To eject.

  2. 2

    obsoleteTo fire (a bullet, arrow etc.).

  3. 3

    To remove from membership.

    He was expelled from school multiple times for disruptive behaviour.

  4. 4

    To deport.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Expel in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchexpulser, éjecter (to eject), déporter (to deport)
Germanverjagen (to eject), abschieben, deportieren, verbannen (to deport), ausweisen (to remove from membership)
Portugueseexpelir (to eject), deportar (to deport), expulsar (to remove from membership)
Spanishexpulsar, expeler (to eject)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does expel come from?

Late Middle English: from Latin expellere, from ex- (“out”) + pellere (“to drive”).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after expel