Commonly misspelled English words ( UK: misspelt words) are words that are often unintentionally misspelled 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 and art with the aid of computers. Computer graphics is a core technology in digital photography, film, video games, digital art, cell phone and computer displays, and many specialized applications. ...

, 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 graphics, raster image, or the smallest addressable element in a dot matrix display device. In most digital display devices, p ...

" misspelled as "pixle" (or variants " cesium" and "caesium"). Sometimes words are purposely misspelled, as a form in

slang A slang is a vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in everyday conversation but avoided in formal writing and speech. It also often refers to the language exclusively used by the members of pa ...

abbreviation An abbreviation () is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method including shortening (linguistics), shortening, contraction (grammar), contraction, initialism (which includes acronym), or crasis. An abbreviation may be a shortened for ...

s, 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 – * adultery – * advisable – * affect – (both words exist, but are distinct) * aggression – * aggressive – * allegiance – * almost – * a lot – (must be two words), * amateur – * annually – * apparent – * arctic – * argument – * atheist – * awful – * because – * beautiful – * becoming – * beginning – * believe – * bellwether – * benefit – * 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 – * delinquent – * 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 – * forty – * 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, Employment, work, job hunting, Housekeeping, domestic chores, and education, as well as necessary activities such as ...

– * 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 – * pedagogue – * perceive – * perseverance – * personnel – * plagiarize – * playwright – * possession – * potatoes – * precede – * presence – * principle – * privilege – * professor – * 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
* their – there, they're * tomatoes – * tomorrow – * Tucson – * twelfth – * tyranny – * underrate – * until – * upholstery – * usable/useable – * vacuum – * vehicle – * vicious – * what – * weather – * weird – * welfare – * whether – (a is a castrated ram) * wilful – (American: willful) * withhold – * writing – * you're – * your –

Common causes of misspellings

Mispronunciation

Mispronunciation 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)'' 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 as another word but differs in meaning or in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (past tense of "rise"), or spelled differently, a ...

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

past The past is the set of all Spacetime#Definitions, 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 ...

past participle In linguistics, a participle (; abbr. ) 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 a verb and used as an adject ...

) 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 – advise * affect – effect * artic – arctic (colloquial UK usage for "

articulated lorry A semi-trailer truck (also known by a wide variety of other terms – see below) is the combination of a tractor unit and one or more semi-trailers to carry freight. A semi-trailer attaches to the tractor with a type of hitch called a ...

") * aweful – awful * breath – breathe * calender – calendar * capital – capitol * dose – doze * hart – heart * its – it's * lightening – lightning * loose – lose * loosing – losing * planing – planning * principal – principle * reign – rain * rime – rhyme * sight – site * stomping – stamping * they're – their * wether – weather * you're – your

Spell checker In software, a spell checker (or spelling checker or spell check) is a software feature that checks for misspellings in a text. Spell-checking features are often embedded in software or services, such as a word processor, email client, electronic ...

s do not detect incorrect use of homophones.

Personal names

Personal names and

surname In many societies, a surname, family name, or last name is the mostly hereditary portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family. It is typically combined with a given name to form the full name of a person, although several give ...

s 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"; "chaplain" and "Charlie Chaplin". 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" in Britain): "apple's and pear's".

Elision In linguistics, an elision or deletion is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable) in a word or phrase. However, these terms are also used to refer more narrowly to cases where two words are run to ...

can lead to misspelling: "doesn't", where the apostrophe represents the elided "o", can be misspelled "".

Notes

References

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