Commonly misspelled English words ( UK: misspelt words) are words that are often unintentionally

misspelled Spelling is a set of conventions that regulate the way of using graphemes (writing system) to represent a language in its written language, written form. In other words, spelling is the rendering of speech sound (phoneme) into writing (grapheme) ...

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. Accepted 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 Computer graphics deals with generating images with the aid of computers. Today, computer graphics is a core technology in digital photography, film, video games, cell phone and computer displays, and many specialized applications. A great de ...

, other words might be more common for misspelling, such as "

pixel In digital imaging, a pixel (abbreviated px), pel, or picture element is the smallest addressable element in a raster image, or the smallest point in an all points addressable display device. In most digital display devices, pixels are the ...

" misspelled as "pixle" (or variants "

cesium Caesium (IUPAC spelling) (or cesium in American English) is a chemical element with the symbol Cs and atomic number 55. It is a soft, silvery-golden alkali metal with a melting point of , which makes it one of only five elemental metals that ar ...

" and "caesium"). Sometimes words are purposely misspelled, as a form in

slang Slang is vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in spoken conversation but avoided in formal writing. It also sometimes refers to the language generally exclusive to the members of particular in-g ...

, abbreviations, or in song

lyrics Lyrics are words that make up a song, usually consisting of verses and choruses. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist. The words to an extended musical composition such as an opera are, however, usually known as a " libretto" and their writer, ...

, etc. In general writing, some words are frequently misspelled, such as the incorrect spelling "" for "consensus" found in numerous webpages. Other common misspellings include "" (for "equipment"), "" (for "independent"), "readible" (for ''readable''), or "usible" (for '' usable'' or '' 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).

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 in all variants of the English language, rather than listing every conceivable misspelled word. Some words are followed by examples of misspellings:

A–B

* absence * acceptable * accidentally/accidently * accommodate * achieve * acknowledge * acquaintance * acquire * acquit * acreage * address * advisable * affect * aggression * aggressive * allegiance * almost * amateur * annually * arctic * argument * atheist * awful * because * beautiful * beginning * bellwether * buoy * buoyant * business

C–D

* calendar – * camouflage – * capitol – capital (both words exist, but are distinct) * Caribbean – * category – * caught – * cemetery – , cematery * changeable – * chief – * colleague – * column – * coming – * committed – * comparison – * concede – * congratulate – * conscientious – * conscious – * consensus – * controversy – * coolly – * daiquiri – * deceive – * definite – , * definitely – , , , * desperate – * difference – * dilemma – * disappoint – * disastrous – * drunkenness – * dumbbell –

E–H

* embarrass – * equipment – (wrong in numerous webpages) * exceed – * exhilarate – * existence – * experience – * extreme – * fascinating – * fiery – * fluorescent – * foreign – * friend – * fulfil – (American: fulfill) * gauge – * grateful – * great – * guarantee – * guidance – * harass – * height – * hierarchy – * hors d'oeuvres – * humorous – * hygiene – * hypocrisy/hypocrite –

I–K

* ignorance – * imitate – * immediately – * indict – * independent – * indispensable – * inoculate – * intelligence – * jewelry (US)/jewellery (UK) – * judgment – (only a misspelling in the U.S.) * kernel – (distinct from homophone "colonel")

L–O

leisure Leisure has often been defined as a quality of experience or as free time. Free time is time spent away from business, work, job hunting, domestic chores, and education, as well as necessary activities such as eating and sleeping. Leisur ...

– * liaison – * library – * license – (US always license, UK noun licence) * lightning – * lose – loose * maintenance – * marshmallow – * medieval – * memento – * millennium – * miniature – * minuscule – * mischievous – (The spelling "" and the corresponding pronunciation are still considered non-standard despite being current and existing since at least the 16th century.) * misspell – * necessary – * niece – * neighbour – * noticeable – * occasion – * occasionally – * occurrence – * occurred – * omission – * original – * outrageous –

P–Q

* parliament – * pastime – * perceive – * perseverance – * personnel – * plagiarize – * playwright – * possession – * potatoes – * precede – * presence – * principle – * privilege – * professor – * protester – * promise – * pronunciation – * proof – * prophecy (as noun) – prophesy (valid as verb) * publicly – * quarantine – * queue – * questionnaire –

R–S

* readable – * really – * receive – * receipt – * recommend – * referred – * reference – * relevant – * religious – * repetition – * restaurant – * rhyme – rime * rhythm – * secretary – * seize – * separate – * sergeant – * similar – * skilful – (American: skillful) * speech – , speeche (archaic) * successful – * supersede – * surprise –

T–Z

* than – thenArmstrong.edu (results for misspelling as "then")
Commonly Misspelled Words
/ref> * their – there, they're * tomatoes – * tomorrow – * twelfth – * tyranny – * underrate – * until – * upholstery – * usable/useable – * vacuum – * vehicle – * vicious – * weather – * weird – * welfare – * whether – (a is a castrated ram) * wilful – (American: willful) * withhold – * writing –

Common causes of misspellings

Mispronunciation

Mispronunciation In linguistics, mispronunciation is the act of pronouncing a word incorrectly. The matter of what is or is not mispronunciation is a contentious one, and indeed there is some disagreement about the extent to which the term is even meaningful. Lang ...

is known to be one of the most common causes of misspelling. Hence,

phonetic Phonetics is a branch of linguistics that studies how humans produce and perceive sounds, or in the case of sign languages, the equivalent aspects of sign. Linguists who specialize in studying the physical properties of speech are phoneticians. ...

misspelling is common, once a word is mispronounced. For example, the word ''realise'' may be misspelled as "".

Typing errors

Some spelling errors are introduced because the typing of certain people is not perfect, such as * letters are doubled, or more frequently double letters tripled, such as "" and "" * letters are singled, such as "" * keys are transposed, so "because" becomes "". ''(see

Teh ''Teh'' is an Internet slang neologism most frequently used as an English article, based on a common typographical error of "''the".'' ''Teh'' has subsequently developed grammatical usages distinct from ''the''. It is not common in spoken or writt ...

)'' Some of the errors listed may be due to mistyping rather than ignorance, for example "solider" for "soldier", although these forms of errors rarely happen in handwritten text.

Homophones

Two (or more) differently spelled words with different meanings are

homophone A homophone () is a word that is pronounced the same (to varying extent) as another word but differs in meaning. A ''homophone'' may also differ in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (p ...

s if they are nonetheless pronounced the same; e.g., "right", "rite", "wright", and "write"; "read" (most

tenses In grammar, tense is a category that expresses time reference. Tenses are usually manifested by the use of specific forms of verbs, particularly in their conjugation patterns. The main tenses found in many languages include the past, present, ...

of verb) and "reed"; "read" (

past The past is the set of all events that occurred before a given point in time. The past is contrasted with and defined by the present and the future. The concept of the past is derived from the linear fashion in which human observers experience ...

past participle In linguistics, a participle () (from Latin ' a "sharing, partaking") is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from ...

) 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 correct English words, though often incorrectly used in place of their homophones: * advice * affect * artic (colloquial UK usage for " articulated lorry") * aweful * breath * calender * capital * dose * its * lightening * loose * loosing * planing * principal * reign * rime * sight * stomping * they're * wether * you're Spell checkers do not 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 ""; "war" and "Evelyn Waugh" (if spoken with a non-rhotic accent); "marshal" and "George Marshall". Personal names do, of course, generally start with a capital letter. Furthermore, personal names themselves have spelling variations, e.g. "Catherine", "Katharine" and "Kathryn", or "Stewart" and "Stuart", and sometimes a writer may be unaware of the correct spelling of a given individual's name.

Foreign writers

A misspelling in English might be made by someone used to a different spelling in another language; for example, "address" is translated "" in French and German. Many Spanish words are similar or identical to English words, but with an "n" inserted, or replacing an "m", leading to errors: "" from "", "" from "", "" instead of "comfortable". The English word 'lose' reasonably looks like it should be pronounced as 'lose' to Germans, as in German the lone 's' often has the sound of an English 'z', and a lone 'o' in English very seldom has the 'oo' sound.

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". The plural can be written with an erroneous apostrophe ("

grocer's apostrophe The apostrophe ( or ) is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritical mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet and some other alphabets. In English, the apostrophe is used for two basic purposes: * The marking of the omission of one o ...

" in Britain): "apple's and pear's". Elision can lead to misspelling: "doesn't", where the apostrophe represents the elided "o", can be misspelled "".

Notes

References

* * * * {{refend Linguistic error Nonstandard spelling Orthography