"spell things out" meaning in English

See spell things out in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: spells things out [present, singular, third-person], spelling things out [participle, present], spelled things out [participle, past], spelled things out [past], spelt things out [UK, participle, past], spelt things out [UK, past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|*|past2=spelt things out|past2_qual=mostly UK}} spell things out (third-person singular simple present spells things out, present participle spelling things out, simple past and past participle spelled things out or (mostly UK) spelt things out)
  1. (intransitive) To provide simple and understandable details. Tags: intransitive Synonyms: spell it out
    Sense id: en-spell_things_out-en-verb-3R~svH1k
  2. (intransitive) To be explicit. Tags: intransitive
    Sense id: en-spell_things_out-en-verb-jtgcyfDB Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 41 59

Inflected forms

Download JSON data for spell things out meaning in English (1.7kB)

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "spells things out",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "spelling things out",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "spelled things out",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "spelled things out",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "spelt things out",
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "spelt things out",
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*",
        "past2": "spelt things out",
        "past2_qual": "mostly UK"
      },
      "expansion": "spell things out (third-person singular simple present spells things out, present participle spelling things out, simple past and past participle spelled things out or (mostly UK) spelt things out)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Here is an article that spells things out, so that it is easier to grasp."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To provide simple and understandable details."
      ],
      "id": "en-spell_things_out-en-verb-3R~svH1k",
      "links": [
        [
          "simple",
          "simple"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive) To provide simple and understandable details."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "75 25",
          "word": "spell it out"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "41 59",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "It used to be that songs could not spell things out, but society is more liberal now."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To be explicit."
      ],
      "id": "en-spell_things_out-en-verb-jtgcyfDB",
      "links": [
        [
          "explicit",
          "explicit"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive) To be explicit."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "spell things out"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English verbs"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "spells things out",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "spelling things out",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "spelled things out",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "spelled things out",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "spelt things out",
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "spelt things out",
      "tags": [
        "UK",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*",
        "past2": "spelt things out",
        "past2_qual": "mostly UK"
      },
      "expansion": "spell things out (third-person singular simple present spells things out, present participle spelling things out, simple past and past participle spelled things out or (mostly UK) spelt things out)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English intransitive verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Here is an article that spells things out, so that it is easier to grasp."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To provide simple and understandable details."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "simple",
          "simple"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive) To provide simple and understandable details."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English intransitive verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "It used to be that songs could not spell things out, but society is more liberal now."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To be explicit."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "explicit",
          "explicit"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive) To be explicit."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "spell it out"
    }
  ],
  "word": "spell things out"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-03 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.