Skip to main content
PlainSpell

spell

/spɛl/noun, verb

spell is spelled S-P-E-L-L: 5 letters and one syllable. It appears 23 times per million words in written English, the 3,814th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, spell means “Words or a formula supposed to have magical powers” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of spell is spells.

How many letters and syllables are in spell?

Letters5: S-P-E-L-L
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing23 times per million words; the 3,814th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search
Pairs people search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; 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 common is spell?

Spell appears 23 times per million words in written English, the 3,814th 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 spell?

  • /spɛl/

Spell has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-spell.ogg, En-au-spell.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Words people confuse with spell

Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).

spell vs spelt0 B

Also written: spelt.

Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).

Forms of spell

  • spells plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • spelling participle, present
  • spelled participle, past
  • spelt UK, participle, past

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

What does spell mean?

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

noun

  1. 1

    Words or a formula supposed to have magical powers.

    He cast a spell to cure warts.

  2. 2

    A magical effect or influence induced by an incantation or formula.

    under a spell

  3. 3

    obsoleteSpeech, discourse.

  4. 4

    A shift (of work); (rare) a set of workers responsible for a specific turn of labour.

  5. 5

    informalA definite period (of work or other activity).

  6. 6

    colloquialAn indefinite period of time (usually with a qualifier); by extension, a relatively short distance.

  7. 7

    A period of rest; time off.

  8. 8

    UScolloquialA period of illness, or sudden interval of bad spirits, disease etc.

  9. 9

    An uninterrupted series of alternate overs bowled by a single bowler.

  10. 10

    A splinter, usually of wood; a spelk.

  11. 11

    The wooden bat in the game of trap ball, or knurr and spell.

verb

  1. 1

    To put under the influence of a spell; to affect by a spell; to bewitch; to fascinate; to charm.

  2. 2

    UKobsoleteslangTo hanker or yearn (for something).

  3. 3

    To write or say the letters that form a word or part of a word.

    I find it difficult to spell because I'm dyslexic.

  4. 4

    obsoleteTo read (something) as though letter by letter; to peruse slowly or with effort.

  5. 5

    Of letters: to compose (a word).

    The letters “a”, “n” and “d” spell “and”.

  6. 6

    To clarify; to explain in detail.

    Please spell it out for me.

  7. 7

    To indicate that (some event) will occur; typically followed by a single-word noun.

    This spells trouble.

  8. 8

    To constitute; to measure.

  9. 9

    obsoleteTo speak, to declaim.

  10. 10

    obsoleteTo tell; to relate; to teach.

  11. 11

    To work in place of (someone).

    to spell the helmsman

  12. 12

    To rest (someone or something), to give someone or something a rest or break.

    They spelled the horses and rested in the shade of some trees near a brook.

  13. 13

    colloquialTo rest from work for a time.

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

Spell in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcharme, maléfice, sort, formule magique (magical incantation), épeler (to write or say the letters that form a word), moment (indefinite period of time)
GermanZauberspruch, Zauberformel, Zauberwort (magical incantation), schreiben (to write or say the letters that form a word), Zauber (magical effect of such incantation), verzaubern (put under the influence of a spell)
Portugueseencantamento, feitiço (magical incantation), soletrar (to write or say the letters that form a word), encanto (magical effect of such incantation), prever, pressagiar (to indicate that some future event will occur)
Spanishhechizo, conjuro, ensalmo, payé, gualicho (magical incantation), deletrear (to write or say the letters that form a word)

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 spell come from?

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”).

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

What to look up after spell