spell out

1. 1.

   make explicit; specify in detail

   “You should spell out your demands”

   Broaderspecify
2. 2.

   spell fully and without abbreviating

   “Can you spell out your middle name instead of just giving the initial?”

   Broaderspell
3. 3.

   orally recite the letters of or give the spelling of

   “How do you spell this word?”

   “We had to spell out our names for the police officer”

   Synonymsspell

   Broaderrecite

   Narrowermisspell

Questions about spell out

What does spell out mean?

spell out means "make explicit; specify in detail". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

What is another word for spell out?

Close synonyms include spell. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is spell out a common word?

spell out is banded "Familiar" — widely understood, used when the subject calls for it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.