Word.ws English Dictionary

spells out

spells out is the third-person singular simple present indicative 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 spells out

What is spells out the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Spells out is the third-person singular simple present indicative of spell out.

Words near spells out in the dictionary

  1. spells doom
  2. spells it out
  3. spells of weather
  4. spells off
  5. spells one's name
  6. spells out
  7. spells someone's name
  8. spells things out
  9. spellsmith
  10. spellsmiths
  11. spellsword

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spells 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.

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