Relieve vs. Spell — What's the Difference?

To cause a lessening or alleviation of

To name or write in order the letters constituting (a word).

To make less tedious, monotonous, or unpleasant

To constitute the letters of (a word)

To free from pain, anxiety, or distress

To add up to; signify

To furnish assistance or aid to

To name or write in order the letters of a word or words

To rescue from siege.

To put (someone) under a spell; bewitch.

To release (a person) from an obligation, restriction, or burden.

To relieve (someone) from work temporarily by taking a turn.

To free from a specified duty by providing or acting as a substitute.

To allow (someone) to rest a while.

(Baseball) To enter the game as a relief pitcher after (another pitcher).

To take turns working.

(Informal) To rob or deprive

(Australian) To rest for a time from an activity.

(Archaic) To make prominent or effective by contrast; set off.

A word or formula believed to have magic power.

(transitive) To ease (a person, person's thoughts etc.) from mental distress; to stop (someone) feeling anxious or worried, to alleviate the distress of.

A bewitched state or trance

(transitive) To ease (someone, a part of the body etc.) or give relief from physical pain or discomfort.

A compelling attraction; charm or fascination

(transitive) To alleviate (pain, distress, mental discomfort etc.).

A short, indefinite period of time.

(transitive) To provide comfort or assistance to (someone in need, especially in poverty).

(Informal) A period of weather of a particular kind

(obsolete) To lift up; to raise again.

One's turn at work.

To raise (someone) out of danger or from (a specified difficulty etc.).

A period of work; a shift.

(legal) To free (someone) from debt or legal obligations; to give legal relief to.

(Australian) A period of rest.

(transitive) To bring military help to (a besieged town); to lift the siege on.

(Informal) A period of physical or mental disorder or distress

To release (someone) from or of a difficulty, unwanted task, responsibility etc.

(Informal) A short distance.

To free (someone) from their post, task etc. by taking their place.

Words or a formula supposed to have magical powers.

To make (something) stand out; to make prominent, bring into relief.

A magical effect or influence induced by an incantation or formula.

To urinate or defecate.

(obsolete) Speech, discourse.

To ease one's own desire to orgasm, often through masturbation to orgasm.

A shift (of work); (rare) a set of workers responsible for a specific turn of labour.

To lift up; to raise again, as one who has fallen; to cause to rise.

(informal) A definite period (of work or other activity).

To cause to seem to rise; to put in relief; to give prominence or conspicuousness to; to set off by contrast.

(colloquial) An indefinite period of time (usually with a qualifier); by extension, a relatively short distance.

To raise up something in; to introduce a contrast or variety into; to remove the monotony or sameness of.

A period of rest; time off.

To raise or remove, as anything which depresses, weighs down, or crushes; to render less burdensome or afflicting; to alleviate; to abate; to mitigate; to lessen; as, to relieve pain; to relieve the wants of the poor.

A period of illness, or sudden interval of bad spirits, disease etc.

To free, wholly or partly, from any burden, trial, evil, distress, or the like; to give ease, comfort, or consolation to; to give aid, help, or succor to; to support, strengthen, or deliver; as, to relieve a besieged town.

(cricket) An uninterrupted series of alternate overs bowled by a single bowler.

To release from a post, station, or duty; to put another in place of, or to take the place of, in the bearing of any burden, or discharge of any duty.

(dialectal) A splinter, usually of wood; a spelk.

To ease of any imposition, burden, wrong, or oppression, by judicial or legislative interposition, as by the removal of a grievance, by indemnification for losses, or the like; to right.

The wooden bat in the game of trap ball, or knurr and spell.

Provide physical relief, as from pain;

To put under the influence of a spell; to affect by a spell; to bewitch; to fascinate; to charm.

Free someone temporarily from his or her obligations

To read (something) as though letter by letter; to peruse slowly or with effort.

Grant relief or an exemption from a rule or requirement to;

To write or say the letters that form a word or part of a word.

Lessen the intensity of or calm;

(intransitive) To be able to write or say the letters that form words.

Save from ruin, destruction, or harm

(transitive) Of letters: to compose (a word).

Relieve oneself of troubling information

To clarify; to explain in detail.

Alleviate or remove;

(transitive) To indicate that (some event) will occur.

Provide relief for;

To constitute; to measure.

Free from a burden, evil, or distress

(obsolete) To speak, to declaim.

Take by stealing;

(obsolete) To tell; to relate; to teach.

Grant exemption or release to;

(transitive) To work in place of (someone).

(transitive) To rest (someone or something), to give someone or something a rest or break.

To rest from work for a time.

A spelk, or splinter.

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.

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.

One of two or more persons or gangs who work by spells.

A gratuitous helping forward of another's work; as, a logging spell.

A story; a tale.

A stanza, verse, or phrase supposed to be endowed with magical power; an incantation; hence, any charm.

To supply the place of for a time; to take the turn of, at work; to relieve; as, to spell the helmsman.

To tell; to relate; to teach.

To put under the influence of a spell; to affect by a spell; to bewitch; to fascinate; to charm.

To constitute; to measure.

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.

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.

To form words with letters, esp. with the proper letters, either orally or in writing.

To study by noting characters; to gain knowledge or learn the meaning of anything, by study.

A psychological state induced by (or as if induced by) a magical incantation

A time for working (after which you will be relieved by someone else);

A period of indeterminate length (usually short) marked by some action or condition;

A verbal formula believed to have magical force;

Recite the letters of or give the spelling of;

Indicate or signify;

Write or name the letters that comprise the conventionally accepted form of (a word or part of a word);

Place under a spell