Definition of "spell" []

• To name or write in order the letters constituting (a word or part of a word). (verb-transitive)
• To constitute the letters of (a word): These letters spell animal. (verb-transitive)
• To add up to; signify: Their unwise investment could spell financial ruin. (verb-transitive)
• To form words by means of letters. (verb-intransitive)
• Spell down To defeat in a spelling bee. (phrasal-verb)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "I've been away from the Blogosphere for a spell myself -- well, for a short time, not actually a *spell*, if we're talking about Lovecraft."
• "Who can spell a French word, but not an easy English word?"
• "I did not know that upon the hot stream beside which you found me, a certain woman, by no means so powerful as myself, not being immortal, had cast what you call a spell -- which is merely the setting in motion of a force as natural as any other, but operating primarily in a region beyond the ken of the mortal who makes use of the force."