21 Most Commonly Misspelled Words
By: Meghan Jones (Readers Digest)
English spelling is confusing enough. But separating the separate meanings of what's been spelled can be downright baffling.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
How to spell commonly misspelled words
The English language is filled with confusing and hard-to-spell words. If you've had to think twice or consult a dictionary or Google before writing a certain word, you're not alone. We consulted English experts, including Dictionary.com's Associate Director of Content & Education and top lexicographer/linguist, John Kelly, to compile some of the most commonly misspelled words in English. Some are fancy words, but others are pretty common—all the more reason for people to look them up.
"Doubled consonants [are] a great challenge in spelling English words, especially in words with more than one set of them," Kelly says about the words that trip people up the most. He also cites different spellings of the same vowel sounds, (receive vs. siege) and consonants (Why is there a C in acquire but not equate?). "Due to the history of the English language, [many words are] pronounced the same way, but spelled completely different," he asserts. Silent letters are another big contributor to the confusion. And that's just spelling—English has loads of confusing grammar rules, too!
While we'll provide the correct spelling of 21 hard words to spell below, Kelly offers a word of advice: Even if you're a language pro, there's no need for spell-shaming. "I think we all need to give ourselves permission to struggle with English spelling," he says. "No one should ever feel bad because they aren't masters of the weirdness and eccentricities of English spelling. These words are really hard to spell, no matter how good at English you are. " Want practice? Test your spelling chops with these impossible spelling bee words.
Accommodate
Commonly misspelled as: "Accomodate" or "acommodate"
"Accommodate" was the most commonly misspelled word on both Dictionary.com and Thesaurus.com in 2021. Kelly believes this word tops both lists because it's so hard to remember that both the C and the M are doubled. With both consonants doubled like that, it almost looks wrong, but it's correct. Another bit (or more than a bit) of confusion arises when there are two very similar words, both correct, that mean slightly different things and are spelled differently—like laying vs. lying.
Beautiful
Commonly misspelled as: "Beutiful"
"Beautiful" is a pretty common descriptor, but keeping the precise order of all those vowels straight can be tricky. And the pronunciation doesn't help matters. Really, English: Why are the four letters "beau" pronounced "byoo" when they start a longer word, but when they're on their own, they're pronounced "boh"?
Separate
Commonly misspelled as: "Seperate"
There are, of course, two different parts of speech and pronunciations for this word, which makes spelling it all the trickier. But whether you're using it as a verb, "sep-a-RATE," or as an adjective, "SEP-a-rate," it's spelled the same way, and that second vowel is an A, not an E. For more spelling fun, check out these common acronym examples.
Niece
Commonly misspelled as: "Neice"
For two little letters, I and E can certainly cause a whole bunch of linguistic confusion when they're together. Just think of all the different vowel sounds "ie" can make in words like "pie," "friend," and "diesel." With the order flipped, "ei" can make the "ee" sound as well, in words like "receive" and "seize." So it's no surprise that spellers are uncertain which of these configurations makes the first sound in "niece."
Perseverance
Commonly misspelled as: "Perserverance"
"Per-ser-ver…" does have a nice symmetry to it, but of course, it can't be that easy. There's no R between the E and the V. The pronunciation of this word contributes to the misspelling as well.
Environment
Commonly misspelled as: "Enviroment"
This one's a classic case of a silent letter. That N can make you do a double-take, since we don't say it when we pronounce the word. "Government" follows the same pattern, though it takes the edge off with a verb version, "govern," that ends with the N, which can help you remember when you're stuck on this commonly misspelled word. ("Environ" is a word, but it's not used all that frequently.)
Occurrence
Commonly misspelled as: "Occurance"
This also falls into the double-consonant trap—and is all the more confusing because "occur" only has one R, but derived forms like "occurrence" and "occurred" have two. All of those forms, unsurprisingly, are commonly misspelled words too, but "occurrence" takes the hard-to-spell cake with that ambiguous vowel in the last syllable.
Acquire
Commonly misspelled as: "Aquire"
The C in "acquire" is a more-or-less silent letter. "That C has an etymological purpose, but today, it's not pronounced. What's it doing there?!" Kelly says. Especially since there are words, like "aquatic" and "aquiver," that do start with an A immediately followed by a Q, "acquire" can trip people up.
rd.com, Getty Images
Congratulations
Commonly misspelled as: "Congradulations"
Raise your hand if you pronounce the first T of "congratulations" more like a D. Yeah, us, too. You won't really hear people, at least in the United States, pronouncing "congratulations" with a hard, crisp T. Now we know why so many people choose to abbreviate it to "congrats." Check out these grammar mistakes you may not have known you were making.
Definitely
Commonly misspelled as: "Definately," "deffinately, "deffinitely," or "definitley"
When it comes to "definitely," common misspellings abound. People seem to get the first "def-" right, but after that, it seems like all bets are off. Switching that second I for an A, doubling the F, and flip-flopping the L and E at the end—they're all errors people might make when sounding out this word.
Persistent
Commonly misspelled as: "Persistant"
The final syllable of "indignant" is spelled with an A…so what's up with the final syllable of "persistent"? This is a textbook example of the exact same sound being spelled differently.
Apparently
Commonly misspelled as: "Apparrently," "aparrently," or "apparantly"
"Apparent" and "apparently" have the opposite double-letter problem of words like "accommodate." There are two Ps, but only one R, so people end up doubling too many letters. And then there's the E, which can easily be mixed up with an A for all kinds of misspellings.
License
Commonly misspelled as: "Lisence" or "licence"
It's all too easy to swap the C and the S, which both make the exact same sound in "license."
Acknowledgment
Commonly misspelled as: "Acknowledgement"
The deal of leaving out or including Es in words like "acknowledgment" and "judgment" could be worth a whole article on its own. In fact, this isn't as cut-and-dry a misspelling as many of the others, since "acknowledgement" is the British spelling of the word. The Americans just loved to be difficult with their spelling when Webster was compiling his dictionary, and deemed the spelling without the E the "correct" one.
Siege
Commonly misspelled as: "Seige"
"Siege" is a weird word—it follows the "I before E" rule even though "seize" doesn't, which leads people to spell it "seige." This word is certainly pretty darn tricky to spell, but Kelly notes that it was an especially popular word to search for this past year, after the Capitol insurrection on January 6, 2021.
Receive
Commonly misspelled as: "Recieve"
Sure enough, another culprit of the "ie" vs. "ei" confusion makes this list of tough-to-spell words. Luckily, "receive" is one of the (frustratingly few) times when the "I before E, except after C" rule is actually right. "Perceive"—another commonly misspelled word—follows the rule as well. Find out some more common grammar rules your English teacher lied to you about.
Bizarre
Commonly misspelled as: "Bizzare"
For how uncommon Zs are, double Zs are weirdly common. "Buzz," "jazz," and "fizz" use them, which might lead you to think that "bizarre" does, too. Alas, it's the R that's doubled.
Succinct
Commonly misspelled as: "Succint"
"Those three Cs, [following] that initial S, is a mess!" says Kelly. "There are all soft S sounds in the Cs—and then there's that final hard C." You'd think the double C would cover it, which leads people to forget the final C altogether.
Believe
Commonly misspelled as: "Beleive" or "belive"
Here's another one that can make you second-guess yourself but that does follow the "I before E" rule. This one pops up on Thesaurus.com searches. Check out some more spelling and grammar rules that are still hotly debated.
Thorough
Commonly misspelled as: "Thourough"
Add one letter to "through" and its entire pronunciation changes. And that one letter, the first O in "thorough," is often pronounced more like a U. It's also tempting to add a U after the first O, as in "though."
Misspell
Commonly misspelled as: "Mispell"
Of course, the word for spelling something wrong is hard to spell. It's another one where the double double-letters look a little funky…but are right! You need an S for the prefix "mis-" and for "spell." Next, brush up on these hard words to pronounce that'll make you even more annoyed at English.
Source:
- John Kelly, Associate Director of Content & Education and top lexicographer/linguist at Dictionary.com
Originally Published: January 31, 2022 Meghan Jones Meghan Jones is a word nerd who has been writing for RD.com since 2017. You can find her byline on pieces about grammar, fun facts, the meanings of various head-scratching words and phrases, and more. Meghan graduated from Marist College with a Bachelor of Arts in English in 2017; her creative nonfiction piece "Anticipation" was published in the Spring 2017 issue of Angles literary magazine.
Tags
Who is online
439 visitors
A little sumpin' for word nerds.
On this site ‘sycophant’ should be added to the list. Thank you spell check.
And 'narcissist'.
There's room on that list for "hypocrite"
I am terrible at spelling and typing, spellcheck is one of the best things about computers
I can't see why, at least here on NT, there are tools.
Misspelled words are underlined in red as you type.
Possible grammar issues are underlined in blue.
Refusal to fix those issues is deliberate.
When it comes to spelling, that is absolutely correct in my case and maybe in one or two others on this site.
I'm amused that many words I type in the original (British) English (having been educated in a country that used British rather than American English) are underlined in red, because the computer language choices programmed into my computer do not give me the choice for British English. When I taught English to high school students in China I had to accept their spellings whether British or American, because their earlier education could have been from teachers from other countries or English speaking Chinese teachers who could have learned either alternative. The most valued English teachers in China are those who were from the only 5 countries in the world where English is their first, or primary, language: England, Australia, New Zealand, America and Canada (in Canada both English and French are deemed equal official primary languages).
The word that I have seen over the years by far the most misspelled online is LOSE or LOSER. Many people add an extra o into both of them. I've even had people tell me that loose or looser is the accurate way way to spell LOSE . Theyve been spelling it wrong so long they cant imagine that its not correct.
I remember a particular former member from Texas who used to make that mistake a lot.
There is more than one member on this site who spell "lose" as "loose", surprisingly even the more educated among you.
The one I see most around these parts are a few of our members that type "butt instead of just "but".
LOL
And let's also remember that's its not correct to ever split infinitives.
As a former English teacher that is something up with which I shall not put!
As a former English teacher I would have said it in a less convoluted way - I would say that is something I shall not tolerate. However, you were just trying to be witty so you don't have to put up with me.
Out of curiosity, what is the difference between "wrong" and "very wrong"? Isn't "wrong" an absolute? Can something be beyond infinity, or longer than eternity?
I keep noticing words ending in 'ist' not being pluralized with an s.
Also, and while not really a spelling mishap, the improper use of 'an' before H-words is as prevalent as ever. It drives me nuts.
Reminder...
Use 'a' before words beginning with 'h' if the 'h' is pronounced.
Use 'an' before words beginning with 'h' only when the 'h' is silent and followed by a vowel sound.
Examples...
A helicopter. A hairbrush. A house... The h's are pronounced consonants.
An hour. An honor. An heir... The h's are silent and followed by vowel sounds.
It seems like "an" is always being misused with the word "history". For most English speakers it should be "a history" or "a historical fact". The only English speakers who can get away with using "an" before "history" are those with h-dropping accents like Cockney, making h's silent, so the word becomes 'istory and begins with a vowel sound. It's the vowel sound that matters.
That's not so hard, is it?
Very few spell this word correctly and it's a real sore point with me.
miini-baashkiminasijigani-biitoosigani-badakiingwesijigani-biitooyiingwesijigani-bakwezhigan.
I've seen it spelled without the dashs or a single i instead of the double ii. I cannot understand why they can't get it right. I've tried to make it simple by using the double vowel system. For goodness sake it's BLUEBERRY PIE, is that so hard?
LOL. Giving Welsh a run for its money, are we?
Ha, they are amateurs compared to us.
When my ex-wife and I toured England and Wales around half a century ago we travelled (again red-underlined because British English uses double "ll" in places where Americans do not) across north Wales to the town that was at that time to have been reputed as having the longest municipal name in the world. What we did, as many tourists did, was go to the railroad station and purchased a short run railroad ticket with the name on it.
We knew it as Llanfair PG.
Gaelic is the original gibberish, not even the Romans could conquer it.
Have you ever seen written Welsh?
Yes, I have. I grew up around the Cousin Jacks (our name for Welsh and Cornish) and my mom's sister married one. The family was shocked how in the hell did they understand one another, Welsh and Ojibwe the conversations were something out of a science fiction movie.
My Auntie also spoke Metis, French and English, as did our entire family, fluently so the family gathering was similar to the UN. We also had Italian and Slavic in-laws.
Why is that NOT a spelling mishap?
Add to that whether "a" or "an" is used before words starting with the letter "u". If the first letter "u" is pronounced like "you", then you use "a", as in union, university, united, unique, etc., whereas use "an" before all others such as upward, understanding, urn, etc
Yup, because the you-sounding "u" words start with a consonant sound. Good point. I don't think I ever see anyone making that mistake, though.
As well, I have often noted that Americans spell the noun "licence" (that just got red-underlined) as "license", when "license" is a verb. The same goes for the noun "practice" which, when used as a verb is "practise" (again red-underlined) Examples: My car licence was once "KARMA 8", when I was licensed to practise law in Ontario, where I carried on my law practice.
The rule, or to help remember the correct way to spell those words is that "is" is a verb, while "ice" is a noun.
Of course Mr. Webster did his best to make English simpler for Americans who had difficulties with it. It was an honourable thing to do, especially since Canadians are Americans' neighbours, and he didn't want students to have to labour too hard (notice that is "too", not "to" and certainly not "two", but then homonyms are a whole different topic for another day.).
I'm so used to the "o" and "ou" difference in words like color and colour that I hardly ever think twice about it anymore.
I am guilty of not being able to differentiate between affect and effect...
I usually end up saying something like impact.
I read that irregardless is wrong and not really a word. Said to just use regardless.
One it says I always spell wrong is defence. I always spelled it with a c when it tells me it is suppose to be an s.
In British English it is treated the same as "licence/license" and "practice/practise" as I referred to just above. i.e. "ice" is a noun, "is" is a verb.
Calling out spelling is often a construct of institutional racism. For that reason when I see King misspelled as Kang, i bite my tongue and say nothing. For years we spell the past tense of is as was, but even dictionaries recognize wuz now.
"wuz"??? The bastardization of the English language - cellphone texting posts as well (e.g. CUL8R) I may have now and then been critical of a person's spelling errors, but never when spelling errors were posted by a person whose first language is other than English. I should only be able to use their first language as well as they use mine.