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  1. spelt love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. A hardy wheat grown mostly in Europe.
  2. v. A past tense and a past participle of spell1.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. A kind of wheat commonly known as Triticum Spelta, but believed to be a race of the common wheat, Triticum sativum (T. vulgare). Spelt is marked by the fragile rachis of the spike, which easily breaks up at the joints, and by the grains being adherent to the chaff. It was cultivated by the Swiss lake-dwellers, by the ancient Egyptians, and throughout the Roman empire, and is still grown in the colder monntainous regions of Europe and elsewhere. It makes a very fine fiour, used especially for pastry-making, but the grain requires special machinery for grinding.
  2. n. A splinter, splint, or strip; a spell or spill.
  3. To split; break.
  4. A preterit and past participle of spell.
  5. n. An unrecognized abbreviation of spelter, a commercial name of zinc.

Wiktionary

  1. v. chiefly UK Simple past tense and past participle of spell.
  2. n. A grain, considered either a subspecies of wheat, Triticum aestivum subsp. spelta, or a separate species Triticum spelta.
  3. n. dialect, Northern England, Scotland A thin piece of wood or metal; a splinter.
  4. v. obsolete To split; to break; to spalt.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. imp. & p. p. of spell. Spelled.
  2. n. (Bot.) A species of grain (Triticum Spelta) much cultivated for food in Germany and Switzerland; -- called also German wheat.
  3. n. (Metal.), colloq. Spelter.
  4. v. obsolete To split; to break; to spalt.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. hardy wheat grown mostly in Europe for livestock feed

Etymologies

  1. From Middle High German spalden, or Old Norse spald. (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English, from Old English, from Late Latin spelta, probably of Germanic origin; akin to Middle Dutch spelte, wheat. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

  • “His agent, Don Meehan, says Yemelin prefers his name spelt with a 'y'.”

    The Globe and Mail - Home RSS feed

  • “If any keen-eyed critic of the ocean, however, should happen to detect a rope rove through the wrong leading-block, or a term spelt in such a manner as to destroy its true sound, he is admonished of the duty of ascribing the circumstances, in charity, to any thing but ignorance on the part of a brother.”

    The Red Rover

  • “But here is a quote from the above-mentioned report, "Farro in Italy": "It is very difficult to make the distinction between the three different farros einkorn, emmer and spelt as particularly the term spelt and farro are often used as synonyms.”

    FARRO MINESTRONE WITH WINTER SQUASH AND GREENS

  • “I brought the spelt pasta home with me from Austria – spelt is quite popular there right now, it seems.”

    Bento #195 – spelt pasta « Were rabbits

  • “I used wholegrain spelt flour, xylobrit (xylitol) and soya butter, added walnuts and dried cranberries, and its delish!”

    Banana bread-cake

  • “Add the cornmeal, wheat bran, whole grain spelt flour, buttermilk, butter, eggs, salt, oil and honey (I recommend pouring the oil into the measuring cup first, dumping it, and then measuring the honey — it will slide right out for you) to the soaking grains.”

    Laura’s Not 7 Grain Multi Grain Honey Bread

  • “The spelt is courtesy of June, who made such a startlingly high, even textured sandwich loaf from all spelt (I'm going to be trying one of those soon, too), and Lynn D. *, who put some in her 18 hour loaf, and liked the results.”

    Toast:

  • “The quarrel was inadequately reported, and his name spelt variously Betteridge and Betridge.”

    The War in the Air

  • “And have the name spelt out 3 times for them, just to be sure there were no errors.”

    Archive 2006-04-01

  • “We have also switched the regular flour, using another flower called spelt, which is very good for you.”

    CNN Transcript Oct 3, 2004

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synonyms (4)

Words with the same meaning

  1. spelter
  1. split
  1. break
  1. spalt

hypernyms (1)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. wheat

same context (2)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. spilt
  1. reparable

reverse dictionary (17)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. polba
  2. speltz
  3. fitch
  1. lough
  2. dak
  3. deil
  1. brachyura
  2. amelcorn
  3. diffarreation
  1. far
  2. emmer
  3. peytrel
  1. skean
  2. spellable
  3. german wheat
  1. starch-corn
  2. wheat

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Comments

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  • pterodactyl This page is amazing. How did I not know about this before?

    *laughing out loud* Apr 10, 2012

  • michaelt42 Spelt is a grain, barley is for malting, oats is/are for horses (Dr Johnson) and pure sublimated sulphur comes in the form of flowers. Apr 9, 2012

  • ruzuzu For more comments about how flour is spelt, see second. Apr 9, 2012

  • ruzuzu The Century Dictionary does have this under the definitions for flower: "n. The finest part of grain pulverized. See flour." Apr 8, 2012

  • rosyposy906 I'd just like to draw attention to one of the quotes,

    “We have also switched the regular flour, using another flower called spelt, which is very good for you.”

    I'm pretty sure spelt is a FLOUR . :P
    Apr 7, 2012

  • gangerh That made me laugh out loud, sionnach. Also, when I'd quieted down I thought, like Alphabetti Spaghetti, too. Mar 13, 2008

  • sionnach Spelt pasta must be what they use to make alphabet soup. Mar 13, 2008

  • treeseed Spelt is an ancient and lovely tasting grain in the wheat family. It makes a more crisp, dense bread, has less gluten than typical wheat. It is available as white or bleached flour or as a whole grain brown flour. Spelt pasta is also available. Mar 12, 2008

  • reesetee Second note for posterity: yarb's right. It was a mere nanosecond. Jan 18, 2008

  • reesetee Nonsense. Even if John were to pelt us with felt rather than a belt (to avoid leaving a welt), and if that happened on the veldt, the smelt would still have smelt as it always smelt and the spelt would have smelt as it always smelt. Although on the veldt, everything would melt, so the smelt might have smelt more than I felt it originally smelt.

    But what if you were a Celt? *brain spinning* Jan 18, 2008

  • asativum On the Veldt. Jan 18, 2008

  • thesuperiorbeing I believe that the welts from the pelted belt (no longer felt) dwelt below the belt, where the pelt of wild bear was not protecting him, so the welt was more felt. Jan 18, 2008

  • uselessness That all depends, of course, on where each welt dwelt. Were they svelte, or below the belt? Jan 18, 2008

  • skipvia I'll wager the felt-dealt welt felt nothing like the belt-dealt welt felt.

    *stops to proofread before posting* Jan 18, 2008

  • uselessness What a blow that would have dealt! Jan 18, 2008

  • skipvia It would have, had he used his belt instead of the felt. Jan 18, 2008

  • uselessness Apparently, John felt the felt would leave a welt. Jan 18, 2008

  • john I'm going to pelt you both. With felt. Jan 18, 2008

  • uselessness Trying... to... parse... Jan 18, 2008

  • yarb Note for posterity: rt beat me by a nanosecond there. It's not like I came along an hour later and ripped him off shamelessly. Jan 18, 2008

  • yarb I have smelt smelt, and I've spelt spelt, but I've never smelt spelt. Jan 18, 2008

  • reesetee I've smelt spelt and smelt smelt, and I've always felt that spelt smelt better than smelt smelt. On the other hand, I've spelt spelt and I've spelt smelt, and I've always felt that smelt spelt better than spelt spelt.

    But that's just me. Jan 18, 2008

  • sionnach I have, however, spelt smelt. Jan 17, 2008

  • uselessness I haven't. Is it dreadful? Jan 17, 2008

  • asativum Have you ever smelt spelt? Jan 17, 2008

  • uselessness Not to be confused with smelt! Jan 17, 2008

  • colleen 1) past tense of spell

    2) dreadful-tasting wheat product Jan 17, 2008

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‘spelt’ has been looked up 2488 times, added to 12 lists, commented on 27 times, and has a Scrabble score of 7.