spell
part of speech
verb (spell, spells, spelt or spelled, spelling); noun (a spell, spells)
meaning for a pupil
1) To spell a word is to say or write its letters in the right order. tree →
2) (noun) A spell is a set of magic words that makes something happen in stories. tree →
3) (noun) A short period of time: a spell of sunny weather. tree →
4) (verb) To spell something out is to explain it very clearly; "spell trouble" means to be a sign that something bad will happen. tree →
sense in the lessons
Used at school: spelling tests, "How do you spell...?". In stories: witches and wizards cast spells. In weather reports: "a cold spell", "a dry spell". Phrases: "cast a spell", "under a spell", "spell out".
examples
- How do you spell "necessary"? tree →
- Can you spell your name for me? tree →
- The witch cast a spell on the prince. tree →
- The princess was under a spell. tree →
- We had a spell of warm weather. tree →
- Dark clouds spell trouble for the picnic. tree →
- Let me spell it out for you. tree →
- "How can I break this spell?" said their sister. tree →
note
Past: "spelt" (UK) or "spelled" (UK and US). Noun "spelling" is about letters; "a spell" in stories is magic. Homonym: one spelling, several unrelated meanings.
In the corpora
- Sometimes grown-ups close a door, lower their voices or spell out words so children won't understand.
- "Necessary" is spelled with one c and a double s.
- The Badger is closer to life: real badgers dig huge old homes called setts and stay underground through cold spells.
- Think of the elements as the letters of an alphabet: about a hundred letters spell out every substance in the world.
- Blending is pushing sounds together to read a word; segmenting is splitting a word into its sounds to spell it.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «spell» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.