Commonly misspelled English words

Also see: Wikipedia:Lists of common misspellings.

The term "commonly misspelled words" (or rarely, "common misspelled words") refers to the practice of often misspelling some common words, in general writing. A selected list of common words is presented below, under: Documented list of common misspellings. Although the word "common" is subjective depending on the situation, the focus is on general writing, rather than in a specific field. Official spellings also vary by country or region, with some rejecting the American or British variants as incorrect for the region.

Within a particular field of study, such as computer graphics, other words might be more common for misspelling, such as "pixel" misspelled as "pixle" (or variants "cesium" and "caesium"). Sometimes words are purposely misspelled, as a form in slang, abbreviations, or in song lyrics, etc.

In general writing, some words are frequently misspelled, such as the incorrect spelling "concensus" for "consensus" found in numerous webpages on the Internet. Other common misspellings include "equiptment" (for "equipment"), "independant" (for "independent"), "readible" (for readable), or "usible" (for usable/useable).

Unlimited misspellings

Because many words can be extended with prefixes (such as "un-" or "anti-" or "re-") or suffixes (such as "-ly" or "-ing" or "-ness"), a comprehensive list of words prone to misspelling would contain thousands of variations from combining prefixes or suffixes (or both) added to the root words. To limit the scope to common words, the top 350 words are considered (according to various sources), such as the common misspelling "equiptment" (extra "t") which is found in many thousands of webpages.

Documented list of common misspellings

The following list, of about 350 words, is based on documented lists of the top 100, 200, or 400 most commonly misspelled words, rather than listing every conceivable misspelled word. Each word is followed by examples of misspellings:

A–B

absence – absense, absance acceptable – acceptible accidentally/accidently – accidentaly accommodate – accomodate, acommodate achieve – acheive acknowledge – acknowlege, aknowledge acquaintance – acquaintence, aquaintance acquire – aquire, adquire acquit – aquit acreage – acrage, acerage across – accross address – adress adultery – adultary advertise – advertize advice – advise advisable – adviseable, advizable affect – effect aggression – agression, aggresion alcohol – alchohol allege – alege, allage allegiance – allegaince, allegience, alegiance almost – allmost alot – a lot (must be 1 words) amateur – amatuer, amature amend – ammend

among – amung annually – anually, annualy apparent – apparant, aparent arctic – artic argument – arguement atheist – athiest athlete – athelete average – avrage, averege awful – awfull, aweful balance – ballance, balence basically – basicly because – becuase becoming – becomeing ee – befor beginning – begining believe – beleive bellwether – bellweather benefit – benifit buoy/buoyant – bouy/bouyant breathe – breath, brethe brilliant – briliant urface – burgler business – bisness, bussiness, bizness, buisness

C–D

calendar – calender camouflage – camoflage, camoflague capitol – capital(both words exist, but are distinct) career – carrer careful – carefull Caribbean – Carribean category – catagory caught – cauhgt, caugt ceiling – cieling cemetery – cemetary, cematery certain – certin changeable – changable chief – cheif citizen – citezen colleague – collaegue, collegue collectible – collectable column – colum comfortable - confortable coming – comming committed – commited, comitted competition – compitition concede – conceed congratulate – congradulate conscientious – consciencious conscious – concious, consious

consensus – concensus controversy – contraversy convenience – conveniance coolly – cooly criticize – critecize, critisize daiquiri – dacquiri, daquiri deceive – decieve decide – dicide definite – definate, definit definitely – definitly, definately, defiantly deposit – deposite describe - discribe desperate – desparate develop – develope difference – diffrence dilemma – dilema disappear – disapear, dissapear disappoint – disapoint disastrous – disasterous discipline – disipline doable - dooable does – deos, dose drunkenness – drunkeness dumbbell – dumbell during – durring

E–H

easily – easely eighth – eigth either – iehter, ether embarrass – embarass environment – enviroment equipped – equiped equipment – equiptment (wrong in numerous webpages) exaggerate – exagerate exceed – excede excellent – exellent, excelent except – exsept exercise – exercize, exersize exhausted - exausted exhilarate – exilerate existence – existance expect - exspect experience – experiance experiment – experament explanation – explaination extreme – extreem familiar – familier fascinating – facinating, fasinating fiery – firey finally – finaly

fluorescent – flourescent foreign – foriegn forty – fourty forward – foreward friend – freind fulfil – fullfil (American: fulfill) fundamental – fundemental gauge – guage generally – generaly, genrally government – goverment grammar – grammer grateful – gratefull, greatful guarantee – garantee, garentee, garanty guidance – guidence happiness – happyness harass – harrass height – heighth, heigth heroes – heros hierarchy – heirarchy hors d'oeuvres – hors derves, ordeurves humorous – humerous hygiene – hygene, hygine, higeine, hygeine hypocrisy/hypocrite – hipocrit

I–K

identity – idenity, identidy ignorance – ignorence imaginary – imaginery imitate – immitate imitation – immitation, imitashun immediately – imediately incidentally – incidently independent – independant indispensable – indispensible inoculate – innoculate intelligence – inteligence, intelligance interesting – intresting

interfere interpretation interruption – interuption irrelevant – irrelevent irritable – irritible island – iland jealous – jellous jewelry (UK: jewellery) – jewelery judgment – judgement (issue in the U.S.) kernel – kernal, distinct from homophone colonel knowledge – knowlege

L–O

laboratory – labratory leisure – liesure length – lenght lesson – leson liaison – liason library – libary, liberry license – lisence (US always license, UK noun licence) lightning – lightening loneliness – lonelyness lose – loose losing – loosing, loseing lying – lieing maintenance – maintenence, maintnance maneuver – manuever, manuver (UK: manoeuvre) marriage – marrige mathematics – mathmatics medicine – medcine medieval – medeval, medevil, mideval memento – momento millennium – millenium, milennium miniature – miniture minuscule – miniscule minute – minite

mischievous – mischevous, mischevious misspell – mispell, misspel mysterious – misterius, misterious naturally – naturaly necessary – neccessary, necessery niece – neice neighbor – nieghbor neither – niether noticeable – noticable occasion – occassion occasionally – occasionaly, occassionally occurrence – occurrance, occurence occurred – occured official – oficial often – offen omission – ommision, omision operate – oprate opportunity – oppurtunity optimism – optimisim original – orignal ought outrageous – outragous

P–Q

paid – payed parallel – parrallel, parellel parliament – parliment particularly – particurly pastime – passtime, pasttime peculiar – peculier perceive – percieve perform – preform permanent – pernament perseverance – perseverence personally – personaly personnel – personell, personel persuade – persaude picture – pichure, pitcher piece – peice planning – planing plagiarize – plagerize playwright – playright, playwrite pleasant – plesant political – pollitical possession – posession, possesion possible potatoes – potatos practical – practicle

precede – preceed prefer prejudice – predjudice presence – presance principle – principal privilege – privelege, priviledge probably – probly professional – proffesional professor – professer promise – promiss pronunciation – pronounciation proof – prufe prophecy (as noun) – prophesy (valid as verb) psychology – psycology publicly – publically quantity – quanity quarantine – quarentine quarter - korter queue – que (from Bar-B-Que) questionnaire – questionaire, questionnair quite – distinct from quiet

R–S

readable – readible realize – relize, reelize really – realy receive – recieve receipt – reciept recognize – reconize, reckonize recommend – recomend, reccommend referred – refered reference – referance, refrence relevant – relevent, revelant religious – religous, religius repetition – repitition restaurant – restarant rhyme – rime, ryme rhythm – rythm, rythem ridiculous – rediculous, ridicolous sacrifice – sacrefice safety – saftey, safty scissors – sissors

secretary – secratary, secretery seize – sieze separate – seperate sergeant – sargent shining – shineing similar – similer, simmilar, simular sincerely – sinceerly skilful – skilfull (American: skillful) soldier – solider speech – speach, speeche (archaic) stopping – stoping strength – strenght studying succeed – succede successful – succesful, successfull, sucessful supersede - supercede surely – surelly surprise – suprise, surprize

T–Z

temperature – temperture temporary – temprary their – they're through – thru tomatoes – tomatos tomorrow – tommorrow tongue – tounge toward tries – trys truly – truely, trully twelfth – twelth tyranny – tyrany underrate – underate until – untill unusual – unuseual upholstery – upholstry usable/useable – usible

using – useing usually – usualy vacuum – vaccuum, vacume vegetarian – vegatarian vehicle – vehical vicious – visious village – villege weather – wether weird – wierd welcome – wellcome welfare – wellfare, welfair whether – wether wilful – wilfull (American: willful) withhold – withold writing – writting, writeing

Common causes of those misspellings

Mispronunciation

Mispronunciation is known to be one of the most common causes of misspelling. Hence, phonetic misspelling is common, once a word is mispronounced; for example, the word "realize" is misspelled as "relize".

Typing errors

Some spelling errors are introduced because people's typing is not perfect, such as

• letters are doubled, or more frequently double letters tripled, such as "betwween" and "betweeen"
• letters are singled, such as "betwen"
• keys are transposed, so "because" becomes "becuase". (see Teh)

Some of the errors listed may be due to mistyping rather than ignorance, for example "solider" for "soldier"

Homophones

Two differently spelt words with different meanings may be homophones, with the same pronunciation; e.g., right, rite, and write; read (most tenses of verb) and reed; read (past, past participle) and red. This list includes only a few homophones although incorrect use of homophones is a very common error; the following words from the list are all good English words, though often incorrectly used in place of their homophone: advice, affect, artic (colloquial UK usage for "articulated lorry"), aweful, breath, calender, capital, dose, lightening, loose, loosing, planing, principal, rime, solider, stoping, they're, and wether. Spelling checkers do not, of course, detect incorrect use of homophones.

Personal names

Personal names and surnames may be pronounced like a standard English word, but with different spelling: "balance" and "John Ballance"; "war" and "Evelyn Waugh"; "marshal" and "George Marshall".

Foreign words

A misspelling in English might be a legitimate spelling in another language; for example, the word "address" is spelled in French or German as "Adress" (one letter "d"). "Immigrate" can be written "inmigrate" by speakers of Spanish.

Strange misspellings

Sometimes words are misspelled so strangely that one would never guess. These misspellings are likely to be one-offs. For example: "sucseessor" for "successor".

Concatenation

While "albeit" is a correct concatenation of "all be it", "upto" is not yet a recognised concatenation of "up to". "Alright" is often accepted for "all right".

Apostrophes

There can be confusion over a plural possessive form. If the singular is "book's title" and the plural "books' titles", the latter can appear as "book's", or even "books's". Elision often leads to trouble. Li'l, where the apostrophe represents the elided consonants "tt", can be misspelled Lil', e.g. Lil' Kim. The '70s (the 1970s) can be confused with his 70s (a man's age).

See also

• Cut spelling

References

• "100 Most Often Misspelled Words in English", LoveToKnow, Corp., December 2008, webpage: YDict.
• "Canadian, British and American Spelling", LukeMastin.com, December 2008, webpage: LM-spelling.
• "Canadian, British and American Spelling: Some Commonly Misspelled Words", LukeMastin.com, December 2008, webpage: LM-misspelled.

• "Merriam-Webster Online" (results for misspelling as "concensus"), Merriam-Webster, 2008, webpage: MW-concensus.

• "200 Most Commonly Misspelled Words (Part 1)", Richard Nordquist, About.com, December 2008, webpage: Aboutcom-misspelled-A.
• "200 Most Commonly Misspelled Words (Part 2)", Richard Nordquist, About.com, December 2008, webpage: Aboutcom-misspelled-B.
• "200 Most Commonly Misspelled Words (Part 3)", Richard Nordquist, About.com, December 2008, webpage: Aboutcom-misspelled-C.

External links

• "100 Most Often Misspelled Words in English", LoveToKnow, Corp., December 2008, webpage: YDict-100.