Word.ws English Dictionary

spelled out

spelled out is the simple past and past participle of spell out.

Meaning of spell out

Verb

spell out (third-person singular simple present spells out, present participle spelling out, simple past and past participle spelled out or (chiefly UK) spelt out)

  1. (transitive) To form (a word) from letters; say the letters in a word.
    • He used Scrabble tiles to spell out “I LOVE YOU”.
  2. (transitive, when writing or editing) To replace an abbreviation with its unabbreviated form, such an acronym with its expansion.
    • To avoid crypticness for nonexpert readers, she spelled out the phrase, so that "tips about PrEP in the context of OHS for HCPs" became "tips about preexposure prophylaxis in the context of occupational health and safety for health care professionals".
  3. (transitive) To explain in clear and simple terms; to be explicit.
    • Here is a brochure that spells out the benefits.

Questions about spelled out

What is spelled out the simple past and past participle of?
Spelled out is the simple past and past participle of spell out.

Words near spelled out in the dictionary

  1. spelled
  2. spelled doom
  3. spelled it out
  4. spelled off
  5. spelled one's name
  6. spelled out
  7. spelled sideways
  8. spelled someone's name
  9. spelled things out
  10. speller
  11. spellers

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spelled out (page history and authors); spell out (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “spelled out.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/spelled_out. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.