Say vs Spell - What's the difference?
say | spell |
To pronounce.
To recite.
* , chapter=5
, title= To communicate, either verbally or in writing.
*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4
, passage=No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or otherwise his man would be there with a message to say that his master would shortly join me if I would kindly wait.}}
* {{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)
, chapter=1 To indicate in a written form.
(impersonal) To have a common expression; (used in singular passive voice or plural active voice to indicate a rumor or well-known fact).
* 1815 , :
* 1819 , Great Britain Court of Chancery, Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the High Court of Chancery , page 8:
* 1841 , Christopher Marshall, The Knickerbocker (New-York Monthly Magazine) , page 379:
(informal, imperative) Let's say; used to mark an example, supposition or hypothesis.
* 1984 , (Martin Amis), Money: a suicide note?
To speak; to express an opinion; to make answer; to reply.
* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
* (John Milton) (1608-1674)
.
*
One's stated opinion or input into a discussion or decision.
* 2004 , Richard Rogers, Information politics on the Web
(colloquial) (non-gloss definition, Used to gain one's attention before making an inquiry or suggestion)
For example; let us assume.
(informal) (Used to introduce a hypothetical)
A type of fine cloth similar to serge.
* 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , I.iv:
Trial by sample; assay; specimen.
* Hooker
* Shakespeare
Tried quality; temper; proof.
* Spenser
Essay; trial; attempt.
(obsolete) Speech, discourse.
Words or a formula supposed to have magical powers.
A magical effect or influence induced by an incantation or formula.
(obsolete) To speak, to declaim.
* 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , I.ii:
(obsolete) To tell; to relate; to teach.
* T. Warton
To put under the influence of a spell; to affect by a spell; to bewitch; to fascinate; to charm.
* Dryden
* Sir G. Buck
(obsolete) To read (something) as though letter by letter; to peruse slowly or with effort.
* 1851 , :
To be able to write or say the letters that form words.
Of letters: to compose (a word).
* {{quote-book, year=2008, author=Helen Fryer, title=The Esperanto Teacher
, isbn=9780554320076, page=13, publisher=BiblioBazaar, LLC, passage=In Esperanto each letter has only one sound, and each sound is represented in only one way. The words are pronounced exactly as spelt , every letter being sounded.}}
(figuratively) To indicate that (some event) will occur.
* 2003 , U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbel, Hearing before the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation , ISBN 1422334120:
To constitute; to measure.
* Fuller
To work in place of (someone).
To rest (someone or something).
A shift (of work); a set of workers responsible for a specific turn of labour.
A period of (work or other activity).
*
, title= * {{quote-news, year=2012, date=April 22, author=Sam Sheringham, work=BBC Sport
, title= An indefinite period of time (usually with some qualifying word).
* 1975 , (Bob Dylan), (Tangled Up in Blue)
A period of rest; time off.
(US) A period of illness, or sudden interval of bad spirits, disease etc.
(cricket) An uninterrupted series of alternate overs bowled by a single bowler.
As a proper noun say
is .As a noun spell is
(obsolete) speech, discourse or spell can be (dialectal) a splinter, usually of wood; a spelk or spell can be a shift (of work); a set of workers responsible for a specific turn of labour.As a verb spell is
(obsolete) to speak, to declaim or spell can be (obsolete) to read (something) as though letter by letter; to peruse slowly or with effort or spell can be to work in place of (someone).say
English
(wikipedia say)Etymology 1
From (etyl) seyen, seien, seggen, &c., from (etyl) .Verb
The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=Then everybody once more knelt, and soon the blessing was pronounced. The choir and the clergy trooped out slowly, […], down the nave to the western door. […] At a seemingly immense distance the surpliced group stopped to say the last prayer.}}
citation, passage=She was like a Beardsley Salome , he had said . And indeed she had the narrow eyes and the high cheekbone of that creature, and as nearly the sinuosity as is compatible with human symmetry. His wooing had been brief but incisive.}}
- They say that Hope is happiness; But genuine Love must prize the past.
- It is said , a bargain cannot be set aside upon inadequacy only.
- It’s said that fifteen wagon loads of ready-made clothes for the Virginia troops came to, and stay in, town to-night.
- I've followed Selina down the strip, when we're shopping, say , and she strolls on ahead, wearing sawn-off jeans and a wash-withered T-shirt
- You have said ; but whether wisely or no, let the forest judge.
- To this argument we shall soon have said ; for what concerns it us to hear a husband divulge his household privacies?
Synonyms
* SeeDerived terms
* dessay * doomsaying * nay-say * saith * sayeth * sayer * saying * there is much to be said * what do you say * you don't sayNoun
(en noun)- Above all, however, we would like to think that there is more to be decided, after the engines and after the humans have had their says .
References
* *Etymology 2
Grammaticalization of the verb. In the case of the conjunction, it could be considered an elision of "Let's say that" and for the "for example" sense of "Let's say"Adverb
(-)- Say , what did you think about the movie?
- Pick a color you think they'd like, say , peach.
- He was driving pretty fast, say , fifty miles per hour.
Synonyms
* (used to gain attention) heyConjunction
(English Conjunctions)- Say your family is starving and you don't have any money, is it ok to steal some food?
Etymology 3
From (etyl) saie, from (etyl) saga, plural of .Noun
(-)- All in a kirtle of discolourd say / He clothed was
Etymology 4
Aphetic form of assay.Noun
(en noun)- If those principal works of God be but certain tastes and says , as if were, of that final benefit.
- Thy tongue some say of breeding breathes.
- He found a sword of better say .
- (Ben Jonson)
Statistics
*spell
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) spel, spellian, spelian, from (etyl) .Noun
(en noun)- He cast a spell to cure warts.
- under a spell
Synonyms
* (words or formula supposed to have magical powers) cantrip, incantation * (magical effect induced by an incantation or formula) cantripVerb
(en verb)- O who can tell / The hidden power of herbes, and might of Magicke spell ?
- Might I that legend find, / By fairies spelt in mystic rhymes.
- Spelled with words of power.
- He was much spelled with Eleanor Talbot.
Etymology 2
From (etyl) .Verb
- "He'll do," said Bildad, eyeing me, and then went on spelling away at his book in a mumbling tone quite audible.
- I find it difficult to spell because I'm dyslexic.
- The letters “a”, “n” and “d” spell “and”.
citation
- This spells trouble.
- Please spell it out for me.
- When we get elected, for instance, we get one of these, and we are pretty much told what is in it, and it is our responsibility to read it and understand it, and if we do not, the Ethics Committee, we can call them any time of day and ask them to spell it out for us
- the Saxon heptarchy, when seven kings put together did spell but one in effect
Derived terms
* speller * spelling * spelloSynonyms
* (to indicate that some event will occur) forebode; mean; signify * (to work in place of someone else) relieve * (to compose a word) (informal) compriseEtymology 3
Origin uncertain; perhaps a form of (speld).Etymology 4
From (etyl) spelen, from (etyl) .Verb
- to spell the helmsman
- They spelled the horses and rested in the shade of some trees near a brook.
Noun
(en noun)Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=A chap named Eleazir Kendrick and I had chummed in together the summer afore and built a fish-weir and shanty at Setuckit Point, down Orham way. For a spell we done pretty well. Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand.}}
Liverpool 0-1 West Brom, passage=Despite his ill-fated spell at Anfield, he received a warm reception from the same Liverpool fans he struggled to win over before being sacked midway through last season.}}
- I had a job in the great North Woods
- Workin' as a cook for a spell .
- But I never did like it all that much
- And one day the ax just fell.