Commonly misspelled words

The term "commonly misspelled words"^[1][2] (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"^[3] for "consensus" ^[4] found in many webpages on the Internet.^[3] Other common misspellings include "equiptment" (for "equipment"),^[3][5] "independant" (for "independent"),^[3][6] "readible" (for readable),^[7][8] or "usible" (for usable).^{[3][7][9][10][11][12]}

Documented list of common misspellings

This list of about 350 words, is based on documented lists^[3][10] of the top 100, 200, or 400^[7] most commonly misspelled words, rather than listing every misspelled word. Each word is followed by examples of misspellings:

A–B

absence – absense, absance[7][10] acceptable – acceptible [3] accidentally/accidently – accidentaly [3] accommodate – accomodate, acommodate[3][7] achieve – acheive[7] acknowledge – acknowlege, aknowledge[7] acquaintance – acquaintence, aquaintance[7] acquire – aquire, adquire [3] acquit – aquit [3] acreage – acrage, acerage[7] across – accross address – adress[7] adultery – adultary[7] advertise – advertize advisable – adviseable, advizable[7] affect – effect[7] aggression – agression, aggresion[1] alcohol – alchohol[1] allege – alege, allage[1] allegiance – allegaince, allegience, alegiance[7] almost – allmost[7] a lot – alot (must be 2 words)[3] amateur – amatuer, amature [3] amend – ammend[1]

among – amung annually – anually, annualy[7] apparent – apparant, aparent [3] arctic – artic[7] argument – arguement[1][3] atheist – athiest[3][7] athlete – athelete average – avrage, averege[1] awful – awfull, aweful[7] balance – ballance, balence basically – basicly because – becuase[7] becoming – becomeing[7] before – befor beginning – begining[7] believe – beleive [3] bellwether – bellweather[3][7] benefit – benifit buoy/buoyant – bouy/bouyant[7] breathe – breath, brethe brilliant – briliant burglar – burgler[1] business – bisness,[1] bussiness, bizness, buisness

C–D

calendar – calender[3][7] camouflage – camoflage, camoflague[7] capitol – capital[7] career – carrer, carreer careful – carefull Caribbean – Carribean[7] category – catagory[3][7] caught – cauhgt, caugt[7] ceiling – cieling cemetery – cemetary,[1] cematery[7] certain – certin changeable – changable[3][7] chief – cheif[7] citizen – citezen college - collage colleague – collaegue, collegue[7] collectible – collectable[3][7] column – colum [3] comfortable - confortable coming – comming[7] committed – commited, comitted[3][7] competition – compitition concede – conceed[7] congratulate – congradulate[7] conscientious – consciencious [3][7] conscious – concious, consious [3]

consensus – concensus[1][3][7] controversy – contraversy[1] convenience – conveniance coolly – cooly[7] criticize – critecize, critisize daiquiri – dacquiri, daquiri [3] deceive – decieve[1][7] decide – dicide definite – definate,[1] definit[3] definitely – definitly,[3] definately, defiantly deposit – deposite describe - discribe desperate – desparate[1][7] develop – develope difference – diffrence[7] dilemma – dilema[7] disappear – disapear, dissapear disappoint – disapoint[1] disastrous – disasterous[7] discipline – disipline doable - dooable does – deos, dose drunkenness – drunkeness [3] dumbbell – dumbell [3] during – durring

E–H

easily – easely eight – eigth eighth - eigth either – iehter, ether embarrass – embarass[1][3] environment – enviroment equipped – equiped equipment – equiptment (wrong in numerous webpages)[3] exaggerate – exagerate exceed – excede [3] excellent – exellent, excelent except – exsept exercise – exercize, exersize exhausted - exausted exhilarate – exilerate [3] existence – existance [3] expect - exspect experience – experiance [3] experiment – experament explanation – explaination extension - extention [13] extreme – extreem [1] familiar – familier fascinating – facinating,[1] fasinating fiery – firey [3] finally – finaly

fluorescent – flourescent[1] foreign – foriegn [3] forty – fourty forward – foreward friend – freind[1] fulfil – fullfil (American: fulfill)[1] fundamental – fundemental gauge – guage[1][3] generally – generaly, genrally government – goverment grammar – grammer grateful – gratefull, greatful[1][3] guarantee – garantee, garentee, garanty[1][3][10] guidance – guidence [11] happiness – happyness harass – harrass[1][3] height – heighth, heigth [3] heroes – heros hierarchy – heirarchy [3] hors d'oeuvres – hors derves, ordeurves[7] humorous – humerous [3] hygiene – hygene, hygine, higeine, hygeine[7] hypocrisy/hypocrite – hipocrit[1][7]

I–K

identity – idenity, identidy ignorance – ignorence [3] imaginary – imaginery imitate – immitate[7] imitation – immitation, imitashun immediately – imediately[1][3] incidentally – incidently independent – independant [3][6] indispensable – indispensible [3] inoculate – innoculate [3] intelligence – inteligence, intelligance [3] interesting – intresting

interfere interpretation interruption – interuption invitation irrelevant – irrelevent irritable – irritible island – iland jealous – jellous jewelry (UK: jewellery) – jewelery [3] judgment – judgement (issue in the U.S.)[3] kernel – kernal, distinct from homophone colonel[3] knowledge – knowlege

L–O

laboratory – labratory leisure – liesure [3] length – lenght lesson – leson liaison – liason[1][3] library – libary, liberry [3] license – lisence[3] (US always license, UK noun licence)[1] lightning – lightening [3] loneliness – lonelyness lose – loose losing – loosing, loseing lying – lieing maintenance – maintenence, maintnance[1] maneuver – manuever, manuver (UK: manoeuvre) marriage – marrige mathematics – mathmatics medicine – medcine^[source?] medieval – medeval, medevil, mideval [3] memento – momento [3] millennium – millenium, milennium[1][3] miniature – miniture[1][3] minuscule – miniscule[1][3] minute – minite

mischievous – mischevous, mischevious [3] misspell – mispell, misspel[1][3] mysterious – misterius,^[source?] misterious naturally – naturaly necessary – neccessary, necessery[1] niece – neice[1] neighbour – nieghbour, and neighbor – nieghbor [3] neither – niether noticeable – noticable [3] occasion – occassion[1] occasionally – occasionaly, occassionally [3] occurrence – occurrance, occurence [3] occurred – occured[1] official – oficial often – offen omission – ommision, omision[1] operate – oprate opportunity – oppurtunity optimism – optimisim original – orignal[1] ought outrageous – outragous[1]

P–Q

paid – payed parallel – parrallel, parellel parliament – parliment[1] particularly – particurly pastime – passtime, pasttime [3] peculiar – peculier perceive – percieve[1] perform – preform permanent – pernament perseverance – perseverence [3] personally – personaly personnel – personell, personel[3] persuade – persaude picture – pichure, pitcher piece – peice planning – planing plagiarize – plagerize[7] playwright – playright, playwrite[3] pleasant – plesant political – pollitical possession – posession, possesion[1][3] possible potatoes – potatos[1] practical – practicle

precede – preceed [3] prefer prejudice – predjudice presence – presance[1] principle – principal [3] privilege – privelege, priviledge[1][3] probably – probly professional – proffesional professor – professer[7] promise – promiss [11] pronunciation – pronounciation [3] proof – prufe [12] prophecy (as noun) – prophesy (valid as verb)[7] psychology – psycology publicly – publically[3] quantity – quanity quarantine – quarentine[7] quarter - korter queue – que (from Bar-B-Que)[7] questionnaire – questionaire, questionnair[1] quite – distinct from quiet

R–S

readable – readible [8] realize – relize really – realy[1] receive – recieve[1][3] receipt – reciept [3] recognize – reconize, reckonize recommend – recomend, reccommend[1][3] referred – refered [3] reference – referance, refrence [3] relevant – relevent, revelant[3][7] religious – religous, religius[12] repetition – repitition[12] restaurant – restarant [3] rhyme – rime, ryme [3] rhythm – rythm, rythem[1][3] ridiculous – rediculous, ridicolous sacrifice – sacrefice safety – saftey, safty scissors – sissors

secretary – secratary, secretery[1] seize – sieze[1] separate – seperate[1][3] sergeant – sargent [3] shining – shineing similar – similer,[1] simmilar, simular sincerely – sinceerly skilful – skilfull (American: skillful)[1] soldier – solider speech – speach, speeche (archaic)[12] stopping – stoping strength – strenght studying succeed – succede successful – succesful, successfull, sucessful[1] supersede - supercede [3] surely – surelly surprise – suprise, surprize[1]

T–Z

temperature – temperture temporary – temprary their – they're [3] through – thru tomatoes – tomatos[1] tomorrow – tommorrow - tommorow[1] tongue – tounge toward tries – trys truly – truely, trully twelfth – twelth [3] tyranny – tyrany [3] underrate – underate[3] until – untill [3] unusual – unuseual upholstery – upholstry[3] usable/useable – usible [9]

using – useing usually – usualy vacuum – vaccuum, vacume [3] vegetarian – vegatarian[1] vehicle – vehical[1] vicious – visious[1] village – villege weather – wether [3] weird – wierd[1][3] welcome – wellcome welfare – wellfare, welfair[7] wellbeing - welbeing whether – wether[7] wilful – wilfull (American: willful)[1] withhold – withold[1] writing – writting, writeing [12]

Common causes of those misspellings

Mispronunciation

Mispronunciation is one of the most common causes of misspelling.^[14]

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.

Notes

1. "AskOxford: Commonly Misspelled Words", Oxford University Press, 2009, webpage: Ask-spell Archived 2008-10-25 at the Wayback Machine.
2. "Canadian, British and American Spelling", LukeMastin.com, December 2008, webpage: LM-spelling.
3. "100 Most Often Misspelled Words in English", LoveToKnow, Corp., December 2008, webpage: YDict Archived 2010-03-13 at the Wayback Machine.
4. "Merriam-Webster Online" (results for misspelling as "concensus"), Merriam-Webster, 2008, webpage: MW-concensus.
5. "Merriam-Webster Online" (results for misspelling as "equiptment"), Merriam-Webster, December 2008, webpage: MW-equiptment.
6. "Merriam-Webster Online" (results for misspelling as "independant"), Merriam-Webster, December 2008, webpage: MW-independant.
7. "Canadian, British and American Spelling – Some Commonly Misspelled Words", LukeMastin.com, December 2008, webpage: LM-misspelled.
8. "Merriam-Webster Online" (results for misspelling as "readible"), Merriam-Webster, December 2008, webpage: MW-readible.
9. "Merriam-Webster Online" (results for misspelling as "usible"), Merriam-Webster, December 2008, webpage: MW-usible.
10. "200 Most Commonly Misspelled Words (Part 1)", Richard Nordquist (see below: References).
11. "200 Most Commonly Misspelled Words (Part 2)", Richard Nordquist (see below: References).
12. "200 Most Commonly Misspelled Words (Part 3)", Richard Nordquist (see below: References).
13. "Difference Between Extension and Extention". Compare the Difference Between Similar Terms. Retrieved 2021-01-19.
14. "How to Prepare for the Canadian GED High School Equivalency Exam", Murray Rockowitz, Dale Shuttleworth, et al., 2002, ISBN 0764117890, p.177, Google Books webpage: GoogleB-9LU.

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.