What's the difference between spell and swell?

Spell


Definition:

  • (n.) A spelk, or splinter.
  • (v. t.) To supply the place of for a time; to take the turn of, at work; to relieve; as, to spell the helmsman.
  • (n.) The relief of one person by another in any piece of work or watching; also, a turn at work which is carried on by one person or gang relieving another; as, a spell at the pumps; a spell at the masthead.
  • (n.) The time during which one person or gang works until relieved; hence, any relatively short period of time, whether a few hours, days, or weeks.
  • (n.) One of two or more persons or gangs who work by spells.
  • (n.) A gratuitous helping forward of another's work; as, a logging spell.
  • (n.) A story; a tale.
  • (n.) A stanza, verse, or phrase supposed to be endowed with magical power; an incantation; hence, any charm.
  • (v. t.) To tell; to relate; to teach.
  • (v. t.) To put under the influence of a spell; to affect by a spell; to bewitch; to fascinate; to charm.
  • (v. t.) To constitute; to measure.
  • (v. t.) To tell or name in their proper order letters of, as a word; to write or print in order the letters of, esp. the proper letters; to form, as words, by correct orthography.
  • (v. t.) To discover by characters or marks; to read with difficulty; -- usually with out; as, to spell out the sense of an author; to spell out a verse in the Bible.
  • (v. i.) To form words with letters, esp. with the proper letters, either orally or in writing.
  • (v. i.) To study by noting characters; to gain knowledge or learn the meaning of anything, by study.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) We outline a protocol for presenting the diagnosis of pseudoseizure with the goal of conveying to the patient the importance of knowing the nonepileptic nature of the spells and the need for psychiatric follow-up.
  • (2) The government did not spell out the need for private holders of bank debt to take any losses – known as haircuts – under its plans but many analysts believe that this position is untenable.
  • (3) The tasks which appeared to present the most difficulties for the patients were written spelling, pragmatic processing tasks like sentence disambiguation and proverb interpretation.
  • (4) John Carver witnessed signs of much-needed improvement from the visitors in a purposeful spell either side of the interval but it was not enough to prevent a fifth successive Premier League defeat.
  • (5) The lesson, spelled out by Oak Creek's mayor, Steve Saffidi, was that it shouldn't have taken a tragedy for Sikhs, or anyone else, to find acceptance.
  • (6) Likud warned: “Peres will divide Jerusalem.” Arab states feared that his dream of a borderless Middle East spelled Israeli economic colonialism by stealth.
  • (7) This could spell disaster for small farmers, says Million Belay, co-ordinator of the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa.
  • (8) In addition to expected differences in spelling and reading, probands obtained significantly (P less than or equal to .01) lower scores than controls on tests of other cognitive abilities.
  • (9) Despite fulfilling a boyhood wish to play for Milan when he returned to Italy, the striker admitted he erred in taking his career back to Serie A, having had a controversial spell at Internazionale before City recruited him for £17.5m in August 2010.
  • (10) Yesterday, John McDonnell spelled out the new Labour leadership’s public investment-driven economic alternative to austerity.
  • (11) Recognition memory was assessed by asking subjects to indicate which words from a longer list were presented during the spelling test.
  • (12) It was a spell in which the Dutch were in the ascendancy.
  • (13) When I wrote this week's public manager column pointing out that there are still too few women in senior public sector leadership roles, it didn't occur to me that I would have to spell out the reasons why it might be a good idea to have a few more women in top positions.
  • (14) Sigurdsson joined Reading as a youngster in 2005, and had loan spells at Crewe and Shrewsbury before breaking into the first team.
  • (15) Slow speech development occurred frequently in developmental and acquired spelling dysgraphic children.
  • (16) True, that comment was made early in Guardiola’s spell as Bayern manager and perhaps it was just a way of endearing himself to his new captain, but there is no doubt the former Barcelona manager adores Lahm.
  • (17) Since ALS occurs mostly in older age groups, this brings up the possibility that aging changes in the brain could play a causative role in the origin of such spells.
  • (18) A long spell of ultra-low interest rates has not driven a rise in inequality in the UK, the deputy governor of the Bank of England has said, rebuffing criticism that central bank policy had hurt some households.
  • (19) 3.05pm BST The Russian foreign ministry has again spelled out Sergei Lavrov's objections to threatening Syria with force if it doesn't comply with the chemical weapons agreement.
  • (20) However, when spelling ability was investigated, a heritability of 0.53 was obtained, increasing to 0.75 when intelligence was controlled.

Swell


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To grow larger; to dilate or extend the exterior surface or dimensions, by matter added within, or by expansion of the inclosed substance; as, the legs swell in dropsy; a bruised part swells; a bladder swells by inflation.
  • (v. i.) To increase in size or extent by any addition; to increase in volume or force; as, a river swells, and overflows its banks; sounds swell or diminish.
  • (v. i.) To rise or be driven into waves or billows; to heave; as, in tempest, the ocean swells into waves.
  • (v. i.) To be puffed up or bloated; as, to swell with pride.
  • (v. i.) To be inflated; to belly; as, the sails swell.
  • (v. i.) To be turgid, bombastic, or extravagant; as, swelling words; a swelling style.
  • (v. i.) To protuberate; to bulge out; as, a cask swells in the middle.
  • (v. i.) To be elated; to rise arrogantly.
  • (v. i.) To grow upon the view; to become larger; to expand.
  • (v. i.) To become larger in amount; as, many little debts added, swell to a great amount.
  • (v. i.) To act in a pompous, ostentatious, or arrogant manner; to strut; to look big.
  • (v. t.) To increase the size, bulk, or dimensions of; to cause to rise, dilate, or increase; as, rains and dissolving snow swell the rivers in spring; immigration swells the population.
  • (v. t.) To aggravate; to heighten.
  • (v. t.) To raise to arrogance; to puff up; to inflate; as, to be swelled with pride or haughtiness.
  • (v. t.) To augment gradually in force or loudness, as the sound of a note.
  • (n.) The act of swelling.
  • (n.) Gradual increase.
  • (n.) Increase or augmentation in bulk; protuberance.
  • (n.) Increase in height; elevation; rise.
  • (n.) Increase of force, intensity, or volume of sound.
  • (n.) Increase of power in style, or of rhetorical force.
  • (n.) A gradual ascent, or rounded elevation, of land; as, an extensive plain abounding with little swells.
  • (n.) A wave, or billow; especially, a succession of large waves; the roll of the sea after a storm; as, a heavy swell sets into the harbor.
  • (n.) A gradual increase and decrease of the volume of sound; the crescendo and diminuendo combined; -- generally indicated by the sign.
  • (n.) A showy, dashing person; a dandy.
  • (a.) Having the characteristics of a person of rank and importance; showy; dandified; distinguished; as, a swell person; a swell neighborhood.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Furthermore echography revealed a collateral subperiosteal edema and a moderate thickening of extraocular muscles and bone periostitis, a massive swelling of muscles and bone defects in subperiosteal abscesses as well as encapsulated abscesses of the orbit and a concomitant retrobulbar neuritis in orbital cellulitis.
  • (2) Undaunted by the sickening swell of the ocean and wrapped up against the chilly wind, Straneo, of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, one of the world's leading oceanographic research centres, continues to take measurements from the waters as the long Arctic dusk falls.
  • (3) Axons emerge from proximal dendrites within 50 microns of the soma, and more rarely from the soma, in a tapering initial segment, commonly interrupted by one or two large swellings.
  • (4) It is a specific clinical picture with extensive soft tissue gas and swelling of the forearm.
  • (5) Psychiatric morbidity is further increased when adjuvant chemotherapy is used and when treatment results in persistent arm pain and swelling.
  • (6) Chromatolysis and swelling of the cell bodies of cut axons are more prolonged than after optic nerve section and resolve in more central regions of retina first.
  • (7) At 7 days axonal swellings were infrequently observed and the main structural feature was a reduction in myelin thickness in affected nerve fibers.
  • (8) In the companion paper, we quantitatively account for the observation that the ability of a solute to promote fusion depends on its permeability properties and the method of swelling.
  • (9) Admission venom levels also correlated with the extent of local swelling and the occurrence of tissue necrosis at the site of the bite.
  • (10) After 40 minutes of coronary occlusion and 20 minutes of reflow, significant cardiac weight gain occurred in association with characteristic alterations in the ischemic region, including widespread interstitial edema and focal vascular congestion and hemorrhage and swelling of cardiac muscle cells.
  • (11) The intensity of involvement varies in different arteries, localized swelling is of particular importance as a measure of atherosclerotic involvement.
  • (12) The DTH responses were induced by subcutaneous injection of allogeneic epidermal cells (ECs) and were assayed by footpad swelling.
  • (13) Adjunctive usage of elastic stockings and intermittent compression pneumatic boots in the perioperative period was helpful in controlling leg swelling and promoting wound healing.
  • (14) (1970) Endocrinology 87, 993--999), in stimulating both mitochondrial protein synthesis and swelling.
  • (15) Rapid swelling of the knee following a blow or twisting injury is considered a significant injury.
  • (16) Attachment appeared to involve a very close physical proximity of treponemes to the cultured cells; at the site of attachment, no changes such as swelling or indentation of the cultured cell surface were observed.
  • (17) The method is based upon osmotic swelling, sonication and centrifugation in sucrose.
  • (18) By contrast, all the semen samples that fertilized oocytes showed a 60% or higher reaction in the hypoosmotic swelling test, whereas the majority of the "infertile" semen samples showed less than 60% swelling.
  • (19) The changes included swelling, blunting, and flattening of epithelial foot processes, were accompanied by decreased stainability of glomerular anionic sites, and were largely reversed by subsequent perfusion with the polyanion heparin.
  • (20) After 3-5 days of side-arm traction, swelling had usually diminished sufficiently to allow the elbow to be safely hyperflexed to stabilize the fracture after elective closed reduction.