List of words that are often spelled incorrectly
One of the quickest ways you can lose credibility is to make spelling errors in your written communication.
Most words can be spelled correctly by sounding them out phonetically and spelling them based on that. However, as always in the English language, there are many exceptions.
Below is a list of the correct spelling (U.S.A.) of some of the most commonly misspelled words. (For the most frequently seen cases of misspellings, I have highlighted the most common misspelling of the word in brackets, and noted that it is NOT spelled that way even though you will often see it spelled like that, incorrectly).
| abhor abysmal accommodate (NOT accomodate) acquaintance (NOT aquaintance) across (NOT accross) aggressive all right anomalous (NOT anomolous) appearance arctic (NOT artic) argument attorney awkward battalion believe (NOT belive) bizarre (NOT bizzarre) calendar (NOT calandar) canister Caribbean (NOT Carribbean) cartilage census chauffeur (NOT chauffer) Chile (the country) chilly chlorophyll coherent, coherence (NOT coherant) colleague Colombia (the country) Columbia (District of) coming (NOT comming) committee commitment comparative concomitant connection conscious consensus consistent, consistency (NOT consistant) corollary correspondence definite (NOT definate) descend desiccate (NOT dessicate) develop diarrhea diphtheria disappoint (NOT dissapoint) discernible domain dysentery ecstasy (NOT ecstacy) embarrass (NOT embarass) exaggerate excerpt exhilarate (NOT exelerate) existent, existence (NOT existant, existance) exonerate exorbitant (NOT exhorbitant) Fahrenheit (NOT Farenheit) Filipino (of the Philippines) focus, focuses focused focusing foreseen forty (NOT fourty) gauge genealogy NOT geneology) gist (NOT jist) glamorous (NOT glamourous) government (NOT goverment) grammar (NOT grammer) guard (NOT gaurd) guerilla (NOT geurilla) harass (NOT harrass) hemorrhage (NOT hemmorage) hereditary histogram honorary hypocrisy hypothesis immediately independent, independence (NOT independance) indispensable infinitesimal inoculate (NOT innoculate) inscribe insistent, insistence interrupt iridescent irrelevant irresistible (NOT irresistable) laboratory liaison (NOT liason) lightning liquefy marshal measure medicine (NOT medecine) memento millennium (NOT milennium) miniscule Mississippi misspell moccasin Morocco naptha Neanderthal (NOT Neandertal) necessary (NOT neccessary) negotiation nickel (NOT nickle) occasional occurrence ophthalmology (NOT opthamology) paraffin parallel pavilion Philippines (country) piece pneumonia (NOT neumonia) polyethylene (NOT polyethelene) polystyrene Portuguese (NOT Portugese) possession preferred preferential privilege (NOT privelige) proceed pronunciation ptomaine (NOT tomaine) publicly quadriplegia, quadriplegic (NOT quadrapelegia) rarefy (or rarify) really recede receive (NOT recieve) recommendation (NOT recomendation) referred religious (NOT religous) reminiscent (NOT reminisant) resistant, resistance (NOT resistence) responsible rheumatism (NOT reumatism) rhythm sacrilegious (NOT sacreligious) sense (NOT sence) separate (NOT seperate) soybean (NOT soyabean) spatial (NOT spacial) stochastic successful supersede (NOT supercede) tariff (NOT tarriff) tendency therefore thorough threshold (NOT threshhold) tomorrow truly (NOT truely) until (NOT untill) weird wherever (NOT whereever) which withhold (NOT withold) writing (NOT writting) written (NOT writen) |
The above is the best list of commonly misspelled everyday words that I was able to put together when I researched and wrote this page. If you think of other commonly misspelled everyday words, go ahead and add them to your own list; and please let me know by e-mail via the “Contact” link at the bottom of this page so I can eventually add them here.