Word.ws English Dictionary

spelt out

spelt 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 spelt out

What is spelt out the simple past and past participle of?
Spelt out is the simple past and past participle of spell out.

Words near spelt out in the dictionary

  1. spelt
  2. spelt doom
  3. spelt it out
  4. spelt off
  5. spelt one's name
  6. spelt out
  7. spelt someone's name
  8. spelt things out
  9. spelted
  10. spelter
  11. speltered

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: spelt 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: “spelt out.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/spelt_out. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.