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Spell vs Shell - What's the difference?

spell | shell |

In intransitive terms the difference between spell and shell

is that spell is to be able to write or say the letters that form words while shell is to cast the shell, or exterior covering; to fall out of the pod or husk.

As nouns the difference between spell and shell

is that spell is speech, discourse while shell is a hard external covering of an animal.

As verbs the difference between spell and shell

is that spell is to speak, to declaim while shell is to remove the outer covering or shell of something. See sheller.

As a proper noun Shell is

a diminutive of the female given name Michelle.

spell

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) spel, spellian, spelian, from (etyl) .

Noun

(en noun)
  • (obsolete) Speech, discourse.
  • Words or a formula supposed to have magical powers.
  • He cast a spell to cure warts.
  • A magical effect or influence induced by an incantation or formula.
  • under a spell
    Synonyms
    * (words or formula supposed to have magical powers) cantrip, incantation * (magical effect induced by an incantation or formula) cantrip

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To speak, to declaim.
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , I.ii:
  • O who can tell / The hidden power of herbes, and might of Magicke spell ?
  • (obsolete) To tell; to relate; to teach.
  • * T. Warton
  • Might I that legend find, / By fairies spelt in mystic rhymes.
  • To put under the influence of a spell; to affect by a spell; to bewitch; to fascinate; to charm.
  • * Dryden
  • Spelled with words of power.
  • * Sir G. Buck
  • He was much spelled with Eleanor Talbot.

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) .

    Verb

  • (obsolete) To read (something) as though letter by letter; to peruse slowly or with effort.
  • * 1851 , :
  • "He'll do," said Bildad, eyeing me, and then went on spelling away at his book in a mumbling tone quite audible.
  • To be able to write or say the letters that form words.
  • I find it difficult to spell because I'm dyslexic.
  • Of letters: to compose (a word).
  • The letters “a”, “n” and “d” spell “and”.
  • * {{quote-book, year=2008, author=Helen Fryer, title=The Esperanto Teacher citation
  • , 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.
  • This spells trouble.
  • Please spell it out for me.
  • * 2003 , U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbel, Hearing before the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation , ISBN 1422334120:
  • 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
  • To constitute; to measure.
  • * Fuller
  • the Saxon heptarchy, when seven kings put together did spell but one in effect
    Derived terms
    * speller * spelling * spello
    Synonyms
    * (to indicate that some event will occur) forebode; mean; signify * (to work in place of someone else) relieve * (to compose a word) (informal) comprise

    Etymology 3

    Origin uncertain; perhaps a form of (speld).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (dialectal) A splinter, usually of wood; a spelk.
  • (Holland)

    Etymology 4

    From (etyl) spelen, from (etyl) .

    Verb

  • To work in place of (someone).
  • to spell the helmsman
  • To rest (someone or something).
  • They spelled the horses and rested in the shade of some trees near a brook.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A shift (of work); a set of workers responsible for a specific turn of labour.
  • A period of (work or other activity).
  • *
  • , title= 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.}}
  • * {{quote-news, year=2012, date=April 22, author=Sam Sheringham, work=BBC Sport
  • , title= 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.}}
  • An indefinite period of time (usually with some qualifying word).
  • * 1975 , (Bob Dylan), (Tangled Up in Blue)
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Derived terms
    * dry spell * set a spell

    Anagrams

    * 1000 English basic words ----

    shell

    English

    (wikipedia shell)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A hard external covering of an animal.
  • # The calcareous or chitinous external covering of mollusks, crustaceans, and some other invertebrates.
  • In some mollusks, as the cuttlefish, the shell is concealed by the animal's outer mantle and is considered internal.
  • Genuine mother of pearl buttons are made from sea shells .
  • # (by extension) Any mollusk having such a covering.
  • # (entomology) The exoskeleton or wing covers of certain insects.
  • # The conjoined scutes that comprise the "shell" (carapace) of a tortoise or turtle.
  • # The overlapping hard plates comprising the armor covering the armadillo's body.
  • The hard calcareous covering of a bird egg.
  • The hard external covering of various plant seed forms.
  • # The covering, or outside part, of a nut.
  • The black walnut and the hickory nut, both of the same ''Genus as the pecan, have much thicker and harder shells than the pecan.
  • # A pod containing the seeds of certain plants, such as the legume Phaseolus vulgaris .
  • # (in the plural) Husks of cacao seeds, a decoction of which is sometimes used as a substitute or adulterant for cocoa and its products such as chocolate.
  • The accreted mineral formed around a hollow geode.
  • The casing of a self-contained single-unit artillery projectile.
  • A hollow usually spherical or cylindrical projectile fired from a siege mortar or a smoothbore cannon. It contains an explosive substance designed to be ignited by a fuse or by percussion at the target site so that it will burst and scattered at high velocity its contents and fragments. Formerly called a bomb.
  • The cartridge of a breechloading firearm; a load; a bullet; a round.
  • Any slight hollow structure; a framework, or exterior structure, regarded as not complete or filled in, as the shell of a house.
  • A garment, usually worn by women, such as a shirt, blouse, or top, with short sleeves or no sleeves, that often fastens in the rear.
  • A coarse or flimsy coffin; a thin interior coffin enclosed within a more substantial one.
  • (Knight)
  • (music) A string instrument, as a lyre, whose acoustical chamber is formed like a shell.
  • The first lyre may have been made by drawing strings over the underside of a tortoise shell.
  • * Dryden
  • when Jubal struck the chorded shell
  • (music) The body of a drum; the often wooden, often cylindrical acoustic chamber, with or without rims added for tuning and for attaching the drum head.
  • An engraved copper roller used in print works.
  • (nautical) The watertight outer covering of the hull of a vessel, often made with planking or metal plating.
  • (nautical, rigging) The outer frame or case of a block within which the sheaves revolve.
  • (nautical) A light boat the frame of which is covered with thin wood, impermeable fabric, or water-proofed paper; a racing shell or dragon boat.
  • (computing) An operating system software user interface, whose primary purpose is to launch other programs and control their interactions; the user's command interpreter.
  • The name shell originates from it being viewed as an outer layer of interface between the user and the internals of the operating system.
    The name "Bash" is an acronym which stands for "Bourne-again shell", itself a pun on the name of the "Bourne shell", an earlier Unix shell designed by Stephen Bourne, and the Christian concept of being "born again".
  • (chemistry) A set of atomic orbitals that have the same principal quantum number.
  • An emaciated person.
  • He's lost so much weight from illness; he's a shell of his former self.
  • A psychological barrier to social interaction.
  • Even after months of therapy he's still in his shell .
  • (business) A legal entity that has no operations.
  • A shell corporation was formed to acquire the old factory.

    Derived terms

    * clamshell * clean shell * come out of one’s shell * eggshell * seashell * shellfish * shell script * shell suit * tortoiseshell

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To remove the outer covering or shell of something. See sheller.
  • To bombard, to fire projectiles at, especially with artillery.
  • (informal) To disburse or give up money, to pay. (Often used with out ).
  • To fall off, as a shell, crust, etc.
  • To cast the shell, or exterior covering; to fall out of the pod or husk.
  • Nuts shell in falling.
    Wheat or rye shells in reaping.
  • (computing) To switch to a shell or command line.
  • * 1993 , Robin Nixon, The PC Companion (page 115)
  • Automenu is a good program to try, and offers a fair amount of protection - but, unfortunately, it's one of those systems that allow users to shell to DOS.

    Derived terms

    * shell out

    Anagrams

    * hells