Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A hardy wheat grown mostly in Europe.
- v. A past tense and a past participle of spell1.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- 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.
- n. A splinter, splint, or strip; a spell or spill.
- To split; break.
- A preterit and past participle of spell.
- n. An unrecognized abbreviation of spelter, a commercial name of zinc.
Wiktionary
- v. chiefly UK Simple past tense and past participle of spell.
- n. A grain, considered either a subspecies of wheat, Triticum aestivum subsp. spelta, or a separate species Triticum spelta.
- n. dialect, Northern England, Scotland A thin piece of wood or metal; a splinter.
- v. obsolete To split; to break; to spalt.
GNU Webster's 1913
- imp. & p. p. of spell. Spelled.
- n. (Bot.) A species of grain (Triticum Spelta) much cultivated for food in Germany and Switzerland; -- called also
German wheat . - n. (Metal.), colloq. Spelter.
- v. obsolete To split; to break; to spalt.
WordNet 3.0
- n. hardy wheat grown mostly in Europe for livestock feed
Etymologies
- From Middle High German spalden, or Old Norse spald. (Wiktionary)
- 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'.”
“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.”
“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.”
“I brought the spelt pasta home with me from Austria – spelt is quite popular there right now, it seems.”
“I used wholegrain spelt flour, xylobrit (xylitol) and soya butter, added walnuts and dried cranberries, and its delish!”
“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.”
“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.”
“The quarrel was inadequately reported, and his name spelt variously Betteridge and Betridge.”
“And have the name spelt out 3 times for them, just to be sure there were no errors.”
“We have also switched the regular flour, using another flower called spelt, which is very good for you.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘spelt’.
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UK Usage - Find US Equivalent
All these terms have a (different) American English equivalent. Wonder if you can identify them?
abridgement (abri..., accoutrement, accoutre, acknowledgement (..., opposite, advert, adaptor, adapter, sticking plaster, advertise, adviser (advisor ..., adze, aesthete and 1196 more...
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Past tense in -t.
Some words are always like this. Some only when British or archaic. Some are just fun.
built, spent, bent, spilt, spoilt, ruint, thought, caught, brought, wisht, pent, spelt and 74 more...
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See list under
Being a list of words which have the phrase "see list under" somewhere in their definitions.
Also, further proof that the folks who put together the Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia w...aggravate, exaggerate, abash, affliction, ponder, abject, dolorous, spelt, See list under, diabolic, apathy
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Recently sniffed
Don't worry. I won't judge you.
(Inspired by bilby's comment on book sniffer.)orange peel, wet dog, coffee, earthworms, nail polish, liquid soap, horseradish, chocolate, microwave popcorn, empanadas, chimichurri, bike and 39 more...
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Things from my memory
nigger baby, mexican jumping bean, puddle jumper, mood ring, pet rock, cat scratch fever, taxman, hippie, vaseline, argyrol, mercurchrome, methiolade and 655 more...
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colleen's words
yellow, green, pie, blue, fur, people, incense, book, brown, avuncular, mountain, fog and 1316 more...
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Time for a new list!
abrupt, erupt, rupture, sync, appropinquity, heterochromia, homochromatic, monochromatic, willy nilly, nitty gritty, kowtow, wonton and 455 more...
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wordz up
Words looked up from app on my phone.
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Only on Wordie/Wordnik
Okay, mostly on Wordie. But it's more fun here anyway.
brannock device, polari, stupidhead, in toto, nounal, flustrated, stuffocate, firkin, full-assed, placeholder name, pro-text, cheesequake and 408 more...
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multiple parts of speech
affect, effect, polish, head, want, rose, hide, project, fit, mine, box, wind and 11 more...
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Idle Chatter
Ok, I'm changing this one to an in-between list for Conversations and Chit Chat. We just have too much fun. :)
pareidolia, hoodoo, myrrh, baromets, verbing, stinkhead, marquee, bananaphone, 99 bottles of bee..., wordie tenth comm..., pit of despair, crocs and 31 more...
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words carli doesn't like
Tweets
Looking for tweets for spelt.

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