What does "dispel" mean?

An act or instance of dispelling.

What is a synonym for "dispel"?

Common synonyms include: disperse, disperse, attenuate, be consumed, be gone, blow off.

/[dɪˈspɛɫ]/ noun, verb

noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level

Noun

1
An act or instance of dispelling.
"“My dispel didn't work,” she said finally. “He wasn't a blood witch, Sunny,” I said."

Verb

1
To drive away or cause to vanish by scattering. transitive
"The clouds and mist were soon enough dispelled by the sun."
2
force to go away; used both with concrete and metaphoric meanings wordnet
3
To remove (fears, doubts, objections etc.) by proving them unjustified. transitive
"It was April 22, 1831, and a young man was walking down Whitehall in the direction of Parliament Street.[…]. He halted opposite the Privy Gardens, and, with his face turned skywards, listened until the sound of the Tower guns smote again on the ear and dispelled his doubts."
4
to cause to separate and go in different directions wordnet

"How can we dispel their doubts and fears?"

From Middle English dispelen, from Latin dispellere (“to disperse; to dispel”).

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.