different between spell vs term

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: sp?l, IPA^(key): /sp?l/
• Rhymes: -?l

Etymology 1

From Middle English spell, spel, from Old English spell (“news, story”), from Proto-Germanic *spell? (“speech, account, tale”), from Proto-Indo-European *spel- (“to tell”). Cognate with dialectal German Spill, Icelandic spjall (“discussion, talk”), spjalla (“to discuss, to talk”), guðspjall (“gospel”) and Albanian fjalë (“word”).

Noun

spell (plural spells)

1. Words or a formula supposed to have magical powers. [from 16th c.]

   Synonyms: cantrip, incantation

2. A magical effect or influence induced by an incantation or formula. [from 16th c.]

   Synonym: cantrip
3. (obsolete) Speech, discourse. [8th–15th c.]

Derived terms

• byspel
• spellbind
• spellbound
• spellwork

Translations

Verb

spell (third-person singular simple present spells, present participle spelling, simple past and past participle spelled)

1. To put under the influence of a spell; to affect by a spell; to bewitch; to fascinate; to charm.
   • 1647, George Buck, The History and Life and Reigne of Richard the Third, London, Book 4, p. 116,^[1]

     […] although the Kings Jealousie was thus particular to her, his Affection was as general to others […] Above all, for a time he was much speld with Elianor Talbot […]

   • 1697, John Dryden (translator), Georgics, Book 3 in The Works of Virgil, London: Jacob Tonson, p. 109, lines 444-446,^[2]

     This, gather’d in the Planetary Hour,

     With noxious Weeds, and spell’d with Words of pow’r

     Dire Stepdames in the Magick Bowl infuse;

   • 1817, John Keats, “To a Friend who sent me some Roses” in Poems, London: C. & J. Ollier, p. 83,^[3]

     But when, O Wells! thy roses came to me

     My sense with their deliciousness was spell’d:

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English spellen, from Anglo-Norman espeler, espeleir, Old French espeller, espeler (compare Modern French épeler), from Frankish *spel?n, merged with native Old English spellian (“to tell, speak”), both eventually from Proto-Germanic *spell?n? (“to speak”). Related with etymology 1. The sense “indicate a future event” probably in part a backformation from forespell (literally “to tell in advance”).

Verb

spell (third-person singular simple present spells, present participle spelling, simple past and past participle spelled or (mostly UK) spelt)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To read (something) as though letter by letter; to peruse slowly or with effort. [from 14th c.]
   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick:

     "He'll do," said Bildad, eyeing me, and then went on spelling away at his book in a mumbling tone quite audible.

2. (transitive, sometimes with “out”) To write or say the letters that form a word or part of a word. [from 16th c.]
3. (intransitive) To be able to write or say the letters that form words.

4. (transitive) Of letters: to compose (a word). [from 19th c.]
5. (transitive, figuratively, with “out”) To clarify; to explain in detail. [from 20th c.]
   • 2003, U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbel, Hearing before the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, ?ISBN:

     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 […]

6. (transitive) To indicate that (some event) will occur. [from 19th c.]

7. To constitute; to measure.

   • the Saxon heptarchy, when seven kings put together did spell but one in effect

8. (obsolete) To speak, to declaim. [9th-16th c.]
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.ii:

     O who can tell / The hidden power of herbes, and might of Magicke spell?

9. (obsolete) To tell; to relate; to teach.
   • 1770, Thomas Warton, “Ode on the Approach of Summer” in A Collection of Poems in Four Volumes, London: G. Pearch, Volume 1, p. 278,^[5]

     As thro’ the caverns dim I wind,

     Might I that legend find,

     By fairies spelt in mystic rhymes,

Derived terms

• fingerspell
• forespell
• speller
• spelling
• spello
• spell out
• spell trouble

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

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English spelen, from Old English spelian (“to represent, take or stand in the place of another, act as a representative of another”), akin to Middle English spale (“a rest or break”), Old English spala (“representative, substitute”).

Verb

spell (third-person singular simple present spells, present participle spelling, simple past and past participle spelled or spelt)

1. (transitive) To work in place of (someone).

   to spell the helmsman

2. (transitive) To rest (someone or something), to give someone or something a rest or break.

   They spelled the horses and rested in the shade of some trees near a brook.

3. (intransitive, colloquial) To rest from work for a time.

Derived terms

• spell off

Translations

Noun

spell (plural spells)

1. A shift (of work); (rare) a set of workers responsible for a specific turn of labour. [from 16th c.]
2. (informal) A definite period (of work or other activity). [from 18th c.]
3. (colloquial) An indefinite period of time (usually with a qualifier); by extension, a relatively short distance. [from 18th c.]
4. A period of rest; time off. [from 19th c.]
5. (colloquial, US) A period of illness, or sudden interval of bad spirits, disease etc. [from 19th c.]
6. (cricket) An uninterrupted series of alternate overs bowled by a single bowler. [from 20th c.]

Derived terms

• cold spell
• dry spell
• set a spell

Descendants

• ? Welsh: sbel

Translations

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:spell.

Etymology 4

Origin uncertain; perhaps a form of speld.

Noun

spell (plural spells)

1. (dialectal) A splinter, usually of wood; a spelk.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Holland to this entry?)

2. The wooden bat in the game of trap ball, or knurr and spell.

Anagrams

• Pells, pells

Faroese

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sp?tl/

Noun

spell n (genitive singular spels, plural spell)

1. pity, shame
   • stór spell

     big shame

   • tað var spell

     it was a pity

   • spell var í honum

     it was too bad for him

Declension

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology 1

From the verb spelle

Noun

spell n (definite singular spellet, indefinite plural spell, definite plural spella or spellene)

1. Alternative form of spill

See also

• spel (Nynorsk)

Etymology 2

Verb

spell

1. imperative of spelle

Old English

Alternative forms

• spel

Etymology

From Proto-West Germanic *spell.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /spell/, [spe?]

Noun

spell n

1. story
   • late 9th century, King Alfred's translation of Orosius’ History Against the Pagans

2. news
   • late 9th century, King Alfred's translation of Orosius’ History Against the Pagans

3. prose or a work of prose
   • late 9th century, King Alfred's translation of Boethius' The Consolation of Philosophy

Declension

Antonyms

• l?oþ (“poem”)
• l?oþcræft (“poetry”)

Derived terms

• b?spell
• godspell
• spellian

Descendants

• Middle English: spell, spel
  • English: spell

References

• “spell” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: tûm, IPA^(key): /t??m/
• (US) enPR: tûrm, IPA^(key): /t?m/
• Rhymes: -??(r)m

Etymology 1

From Middle English terme, borrowed from Old French terme, from Latin terminus (“a bound, boundary, limit, end; in Medieval Latin, also a time, period, word, covenant, etc.”).

Doublet of terminus. Old English had termen, from the same source.

Noun

term (plural terms)

1. That which limits the extent of anything; limit, extremity, bound, boundary.

2. A chronological limitation or restriction.

3. Any of the binding conditions or promises in a legal contract.

4. (geometry, archaic) A point, line, or superficies that limits.

   A line is the term of a superficies, and a superficies is the term of a solid.

5. A word or phrase, especially one from a specialised area of knowledge.

   "Algorithm" is a term used in computer science.

6. Relations among people.
7. Part of a year, especially one of the three parts of an academic year.
8. Duration of a set length; period in office of fixed length.
   1. The time during which legal courts are open.
   2. Certain days on which rent is paid.
9. With respect to a pregnancy, the period during which birth usually happens (approximately 40 weeks from conception).

10. (of a patent) The maximum period during which the patent can be maintained into force.
11. (archaic) A menstrual period.
    • 1660, Samuel Pepys, Diary

      My wife, after the absence of her terms for seven weeks, gave me hopes of her being with child, but on the last day of the year she hath them again.

12. (mathematics) Any value (variable or constant) or expression separated from another term by a space or an appropriate character, in an overall expression or table.

13. (logic) The subject or the predicate of a proposition; one of the three component parts of a syllogism, each one of which is used twice.

    • The subject and predicate of a proposition are, after Aristotle, together called its terms or extremes.

14. (astrology) An essential dignity in which unequal segments of every astrological sign have internal rulerships which affect the power and integrity of each planet in a natal chart.
15. (art) A statue of the upper body, sometimes without the arms, ending in a pillar or pedestal. [from 17th c.]
    • 1773, Joshua Reynolds, in John Ingamells, John Edgcumbe (eds.), The Letters of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Yale 2000, p. 42:

      You have been already informed, I have no doubt, of the subject which we have chosen: the adorning a Term of Hymen with festoons of flowers.

16. (nautical) A piece of carved work placed under each end of the taffrail.

    The Cabin is large and commodious, well calculated for the Accommodation of Pa?engers. Merchandi?e, Produce, &c. carried on the lowe?t Terms.[1]

Hyponyms

• blanket term
• collective term
• umbrella term
• (part of a year): trimester, semester, quarter

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

• idiom
• lexeme
• listeme
• word

Verb

term (third-person singular simple present terms, present participle terming, simple past and past participle termed)

1. To phrase a certain way; to name or call.

Synonyms

• describe as, designate, dub, name, refer to; see also Thesaurus:denominate

Adjective

term (not comparable)

1. (medicine, colloquial) Born or delivered at term.

References

• term on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 2

Clipping of terminal.

Noun

term (plural terms)

1. (computing, informal) A computer program that emulates a physical terminal.

Etymology 3

Short for terminate, termination, terminated employee, etc.

Verb

term (third-person singular simple present terms, present participle terming, simple past and past participle termed)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To terminate one's employment

Synonyms

• axe, fire, sack; see also Thesaurus:lay off

Noun

term (plural terms)

1. One whose employment has been terminated

Further reading

• term in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• term in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Albanian

Etymology

From ter.

Noun

term m (indefinite plural terma, definite singular terma, definite plural termat)

1. foundation, plot of land

Related terms

• ter

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -?rm

Noun

term m (plural termen, diminutive termpje n)

1. term; A word or phrase, especially one from a specialised area of knowledge.
2. (mathematics) term; One of the addends in a sum

Derived terms

• termsgewijs

Anagrams

• remt

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Latin terminus, via French terme and English term

Noun

term m (definite singular termen, indefinite plural termer, definite plural termene)

1. a term (word or phrase)

References

• “term” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

From Latin terminus, via French terme and English term

Noun

term m (definite singular termen, indefinite plural termar, definite plural termane)

1. a term (word or phrase)

References

• “term” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Swedish

Noun

term c

1. a term (a well-defined word or phrase, in a terminology)
2. (mathematics) a term (an operand in addition or subtraction)
3. singular of termer (“thermae, Roman baths”) (a facility for bathing in ancient Rome)

Declension

Related terms

• fackterm
• termbank
• terminologi

References