Spelling.School · How to spell

How to spell sell

hear itsell/sɛl/verbStarter

What it means: To exchange something for money.

In a sentence: I will sell lemonade at the fair.

The part people get wrong

Watch for double l. Often misspelled as sel or cell.

Sounds like, but is not: cell. Same sound, different spelling and meaning.

Same family: sold, selling, seller, betray, traitor. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: English 'sell' comes from Old English 'sellan', meaning ‘to give, hand over, deliver.’ Over time, this idea of handing something over was extended to include both ordinary trade and the more negative sense of betraying someone to an enemy.

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