Word.ws English Dictionary

Past tense of spell

regular verb

The past tense of spell is spelled. The past participle is also spelled.

Forms of spell

Base form (V1)spell /spɛl/
Past tense (V2)spelled /ˈspɛld/
Past participle (V3)spelled /ˈspɛld/
Present participlespelling /ˈspɛl.ɪŋ/
Third person singularspells

Past tense of spell by meaning

  1. to put under the influence of a spell; to affect by a spell; to bewitch; to fascinate; to...: spelled
  2. to write or say the letters that form a word or part of a word.: spelled or spelt
  3. to work in place of (someone).: spelled or spelt

Spelled in a sentence

  • The note D♭ is spelled differently from C♯, even though they sound equivalent.
  • A dominant seventh chord is spelled with a diminished seventh interval, not a major sixth.
  • The word facetiously is spelled with all six vowels in alphabetical order.From the entry vowel
  • For goodness' sake, I spelled that word correctly. I never knew I could do that.From the entry for goodness' sake
  • In Spanish, "neozelandés" is spelled all one word and in English "New Zealander" is two words.From the entry all one word

Meaning of spell

  1. noun Words or a formula supposed to have magical powers.
  2. noun A magical effect or influence induced by an incantation or formula.
  3. noun Speech, discourse.

Full definition of spell

Questions about the past tense of spell

What is the past tense of spell?
The past tense of spell is spelled.
What is the past participle of spell?
The past participle of spell is spelled.
Is spell a regular or irregular verb?
Spell is a regular verb: its past tense adds -ed.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spell (page history and authors) and the entries of its forms. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws left out forms marked obsolete, archaic, rare or dialectal and added the examples. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this page: “Past tense of spell.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/spell. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.