Commonly misspelled words

The term "commonly misspelled words" (or sometimes, "common misspelled words") is about words in English that are often spelled wrongly.

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

Documented list of common misspellings

This 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 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 advisable – adviseable, advizable affect – effect aggression – agression, aggresion alcohol – alchohol allege – alege, allage allegiance – allegaince, allegience, alegiance almost – allmost a lot – alot (must be 2 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 before – befor beginning – begining believe – beleive bellwether – bellweather benefit – benifit buoy/buoyant – bouy/bouyant breathe – breath, brethe brilliant – briliant burglar – burgler business – bisness, bussiness, bizness, buisness

C–D

calendar – calender camouflage – camoflage, camoflague capitol – capital career – carrer, carreer 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 eight – eigth 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 extension - extention 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 invitation 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 neighbour – nieghbour, and 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 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 one of the most common causes of misspelling.

Typing errors

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

• letters are doubled or tripled, such as "careeer" and "betweeen"
• letters are singled, such as "betwen"
• keys are transposed, so "because" becomes "becuase".

Foreign words

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

References

• "100 Most Often Misspelled Words in English", LoveToKnow, Corp., December 2008, webpage: YDict Archived 2010-03-13 at the Wayback Machine.
• "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 Archived 2009-01-25 at the Wayback Machine.
• "200 Most Commonly Misspelled Words (Part 2)", Richard Nordquist, About.com, December 2008, webpage: Aboutcom-misspelled-B Archived 2008-12-04 at the Wayback Machine.
• "200 Most Commonly Misspelled Words (Part 3)", Richard Nordquist, About.com, December 2008, webpage: Aboutcom-misspelled-C Archived 2009-05-22 at the Wayback Machine.

Other websites

• "100 Most Often Misspelled Words in English", LoveToKnow, Corp., December 2008, webpage: YDict-100 Archived 2010-03-13 at the Wayback Machine.