Noun

(uncountable) The act, practice, ability, or subject of forming words with letters, or of reading the letters of words; orthography.

* 1904 , , Autobiography of Andrew Dickson White , p 43:

For the practical use of spelling comes in writing.

* 1920 , Henry Gallup Paine, Handbook of Simplified Spelling , New York: Simplified Spelling Board, p 1:

Spelling was invented by man and, like other human inventions, is capable of development and improvement by man in the direction of simplicity, economy, and efficiency.

* 2001 , , The Program , New York: Dell, p 66:

I knew that Kriciak, the inspector who was supervising me for the Marshals Service, was going to go nuts when I told him that I wanted to allow Landon to participate in soccer and spelling .

(uncountable) The manner of spelling of words; correct spelling.

* 2006 , Wm. Shakespeare, Ann Thompson and Neil Taylor, eds., Hamlet , London: Arden Shakespeare:

[p 88] Because Elizabethan spelling' was fluid, editors feel free to ‘modernize’ (correct) the '''spelling''' in the quartos and the Folio. But how is one to spell Rosencratz or Guildenstern, where the ' spelling varies, not only from text to text, but even within texts?

(countable) A specific spelling of a word.

* 2006 , Wm. Shakespeare, Ann Thompson and Neil Taylor, eds., Hamlet , London: Arden Shakespeare:

[p 253] *excellent'  Q2’s ‘extent’ is generally dismissed as an error, probably a mis-reading of ‘exlent’, a common ' spelling at this time.

[p 269] reverend   The spellings ‘reuerent’ (Q2) and ‘Reuerend’ (F) were interchangeable at this time.

[p 466] Guildensterne and Rosincrance are F’s consistent spellings .

(US, rare, dated, countable, or, uncountable) A spelling test or spelling bee.

* 1860 , , The Colonel's Diary: Journals Kept Before and During the Civil War [1922], Sharon, Penn., p 23:

The boys were anxious for a spelling in the evening but I said no.

* 1889 , , “A’ Old Played-Out Song”, in Pipes O' Pan at Zekesbury , Indianapolis, Ind.: Bowen-Merrill, p 45:

How her face ust to look, in the twilight, / As I tuck her to spellin’ ; and she / Kep’ a-hummin’ that song ’tel I ast her, / Pine-blank, ef she ever missed me!

* 2004 , Carl Lindahl, ed., American Folktales: From the Collections of the Library of Congress , v 1, Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, p 416:

So we'd sit with these girls during school hours, and we told them, if they'd slip off, that we'd get away, and we'd go to [the school] to a spelling .

Noun

(-)

Work that is done at home, especially school exercises set by a teacher.

*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-19, author=(Peter Wilby)

, volume=189, issue=6, page=30, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= Finland spreads word on schools , passage=Imagine a country where children do nothing but play until they start compulsory schooling at age seven. Then, without exception, they attend comprehensives until the age of 16.

Preliminary or preparatory work, such as research.