Spell vs Write - What's the difference?
spell | write |
(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.
(lb) To form letters, words or symbols on a surface in order to communicate.
:
:
(lb) To be the author of (a book, article, poem, etc.).
:
*
*:Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language; his clerks, however, understood him very well. If he had written a love letter, or a farce, or a ballade , or a story, no one, either clerks, or friends, or compositors, would have understood anything but a word here and a word there.
(lb) To send written information to.
:
:
(lb) To show (information, etc) in written form.
:
(lb) To be an author.
:
To record (data) mechanically or electronically.
:
To fill in, to complete using words.
:
To impress durably; to imprint; to engrave.
:
To make known by writing; to record; to prove by one's own written testimony; often used reflexively.
*(John Milton) (1608-1674)
*:He who writes himself by his own inscription is like an ill painter, who, by writing on a shapeless picture which he hath drawn, is fain to tell passengers what shape it is, which else no man could imagine.
(computing) The operation of storing data, as in memory or onto disk.
* 2006 , MySQL administrator's guide and language reference (page 393)
In intransitive terms the difference between spell and write
is that spell is to be able to write or say the letters that form words while write is to be an author.In transitive terms the difference between spell and write
is that spell is to rest (someone or something) while write is to show (information, etc) in written form.As nouns the difference between spell and write
is that spell is speech, discourse while write is the operation of storing data, as in memory or onto disk.As verbs the difference between spell and write
is that spell is to speak, to declaim while write is to form letters, words or symbols on a surface in order to communicate.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.
Derived terms
* dry spell * set a spellQuotations
* (English Citations of "spell")Anagrams
* 1000 English basic words ----write
English
Verb
Synonyms
* inscribe, scrawl (indistinctly), scribble (quickly or imprecisely) * (be the author of) author, pen * to post * display, indicate, mark, show * save, store * See alsoAntonyms
* load, read, retrieveDerived terms
* bewrite * co-write * hand-written * nothing to write home about * overwrite * rewrite * that's all she wrote * underwrite * who writes this stuff? * write down, write-down * write head * write in, write-in * write off, write-off * write once * * write one's own ticket * write-only * write out * writer * write up, write-up * writingNoun
(en noun)- How many writes per second can this hard disk handle?
- In other words, the system can do 1200 reads per second with no writes , the average write is twice as slow as the average read, and the relationship is linear.