Word.ws English Dictionary

spelt

/ˈspɛlt/

spelt is the simple past and past participle of spell.

Noun (2)

spelt (plural spelts)

  1. (Northern England, Scotland, dialectal) A thin piece of wood or metal; a splinter.
  2. Spelter.

Meaning of spell

Verb (1)

spell (third-person singular simple present spells, present participle spelling, simple past and past participle spelled)

  1. To put under the influence of a spell; to affect by a spell; to bewitch; to fascinate; to charm.
    • Vnchaine your spirits now with spelling Charmes,1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
  2. (UK, obsolete, slang) To hanker or yearn (for something).
    • "I have not got a coal ticket with me."
      "I am sorry you should think I was 'spelling' for a coal ticket," he interrupted; "if such an idea had occurred to me, I should have asked for it straightforwardly."1892, Thomas Wright, The pinch of poverty, page 81

Verb (2)

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

  1. (intransitive, sometimes, transitive) 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.
  2. (obsolete, transitive) To read (something) as though letter by letter; to peruse slowly or with effort.
    • "He'll do," said Bildad, eyeing me, and then went on spelling away at his book in a mumbling tone quite audible.1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick
  3. (transitive) Of letters: to compose (a word).
    • The letters “a”, “n” and “d” spell “and”.
    Synonyms:
    comprise
  4. (figuratively, transitive) To clarify; to explain in detail.
    • Please spell it out for me.

See all 26 meanings of spell

Noun (1)

spelt (usually uncountable, plural spelts)

  1. (usually) A grain, considered either a subspecies of wheat, Triticum aestivum subsp. spelta, or a separate species Triticum spelta or Triticum dicoccon.
    Synonyms:
    dinkel

Adjective

spelt (not comparable)

  1. (obsolete, rare) Of dried beans: pounded, crushed, or split.
    • [H]alfe an houre after give him a pottell of Oates and a pinte of ſpelt Beanes, then a ſmall bottel of Hay: […]1631, Garvase Markham, “The Third Booke: Of Feeding, Breeding, and Curing. of Cattell. […]”, in The Whole Art of Husbandry Contained in Foure Bookes. […], London: […] T. C. for Richard More, […]...
    • The next day very early as may be, firſt feed, then dreſſe, after cloath and ſaddle, then ayre him abroad, and water him as hath been before ſhewed, after bring him home, and feed him with oats, ſpelt beans, and bread, as was laſt of all declared, onely very little Hay, […]a. 1638, G[ervase] Markam, “Ordering of the Horse after His Scowring”, in The Complete Farriar, or The Kings High-Way to Horsmanship. […], London: […] I. D[awson] for R. Young, and are sold by...

Verb

spelt (third-person singular simple present spelts, present participle spelting, simple past and past participle spelted)

  1. (obsolete, transitive) To grind or crush (grain or pulses).
    • spelted Beans1707, J[ohn] Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land. […], London: […] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock […], and J[onathan] Robinson […], →OCLC

Synonyms of spelt

Forms of spelt

Verb
alternative formspelled
third-person singular presentspelts
present participlespelting
past participlespelted
pastspelted
Noun
pluralspelts

Origin of spelt

From Late Middle English spelde (past tense) and spelled, ispeled, ispelled (past participles). The past tense reflects an early Middle English syncopation of spellede, while the past participle remained largely disyllabic until the general Early Modern English reduction of the -ed suffix. In both cases, once the medial vowel was lost, the final alveolar stop underwent phonetic devoicing after the sonorant /l/, resulting in the modern -t spelling. Compare dwelt, felt, and smelt. By surface analysis, spell + -t.

From Middle English spelt, from Old English spelt (“spelt, corn”), from Old Saxon spelta (“spelt”); or from Late Latin spelta (“spelt”), from Frankish *spelta (“spelt”); all from Proto-Germanic *spiltaz (“spelt”).

The noun is from Middle English spelt, from Old English spelt, connected with the verb. Compare speld and German Spelze (“husk”). The adjective is from Middle English spelt, probably a contraction of spelked, past participle of spelken (“to bruise (beans)”), itself of obscure origin. Compare Scots spilkings (“split peas”), the later verb, and perhaps also splet. The verb is probably from the adjective. Compare earlier spald, speld.

Words formed from spelt

Phrases with spelt

Words that rhyme with spelt

12 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about spelt

What does spelt mean?
Spelt means a grain, considered either a subspecies of wheat, Triticum aestivum subsp. spelta, or a separate species Triticum spelta or Triticum dicoccon.
What is spelt the simple past and past participle of?
Spelt is the simple past and past participle of spell.
What part of speech is spelt?
Spelt can be a noun, an adjective or a verb.
How do you pronounce spelt?
Spelt is pronounced /ˈspɛlt/.
What is the plural of spelt?
The plural of spelt is spelts.

Words near spelt in the dictionary

  1. spellwords
  2. spellwork
  3. Spelman
  4. Spelmans
  5. Spelsbury
  6. spelt
  7. spelt doom
  8. spelt it out
  9. spelt off
  10. spelt one's name
  11. spelt out

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spelt (page history and authors); spell (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-spelt.wav.

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