Commonly Misspelled Words

Spelling matters. The intricacies of the English language result from its mixture of etymological origins, which then lends itself to spelling problems. Spelling rules in English may not be as consistent with its pronunciation when compared to other languages. English does have rules and structure but its rules are rampant with exceptions.

Misspelling can also have unforeseeable consequences. Whether a word is misspelled in a college essay, a job résumé or cover letter, a writing assignment for school, or an important email sent to an authority figure, such as a professor or a teacher, there can be dire consequences. If a critical word in a sentence is misspelled, it may change the entire syntactical meaning of the sentence or it may even reduce the sentence to incomprehensibility or incoherency.

Often times, the word that is chosen sounds very similar to the word that should have been used in the context. It is imperative, however, to select the exact word you are using in order to communicate clearly and ensure that the correct expression is being received. Using words that are misspelled to using a word incorrectly can hinder your communication and even cause the reader to feel that you aren’t attentive which may result in being turned down for a job because there was a spelling error in your cover letter, or losing points on an essay for English class.

Two types of commonly misused word types include homophones and contractions.

Homophones

Homophones, or words that are pronounced the same as another word but differs in their meaning and spelling, can be misused. For example, peak, pique, and peek, all sound the same but they all have very distinct meanings. A person can take peek around a corner or climb to the peak of the Swiss Alps, while a person whose curiosity has been piqued, becomes excited or stimulated.

Contractions

Contractions are produced when two or more words are joined together while leaving out some of the sounds or the letters. An apostrophe is commonly used in a contraction to show where sounds or letters have been omitted. For example, should’ve is a contraction for should have.

Commonly Misspelled Homophones

• lose/loose
• effect/affect
• weather/whether
• then/than
• principle/principal

Commonly Misspelled Contractions

• it’s/its
• your/you’re
• their/they’re/there

100 Most Commonly Misspelled Words in the English Language

Acceptable Accidently Accommodate Acquire Acquit Amateur Apparent Argument Atheist Believe Bellwether Calendar Category Cemetery Changeable Collectible Column Committed Conscience Conscientious Conscious Consensus Daiquiri Definitely Discipline Drunkenness Dumbbell Embarrass Equipment Exhilarate Exceed Existence Experience

Fiery Foreign Gauge Grateful Guarantee Harass Height Hierarchy Humorous Ignorance Immediate Independent Indispensable Inoculate Intelligence Jewelry Judgment Kernel Colonel Leisure Liaison Library License Maintenance Maneuver Medieval Memento Millennium Miniature Minuscule Mischievous Misspell

Neighbor Noticeable Occasionally Occurrence Pastime Perseverance Personnel Playwright Possession Precede Privilege Pronunciation Publicly Questionnaire Receive Receipt Recommend Referred Reference Relevant Restaurant Rhyme Rhythm Schedule Separate Sergeant Supersede Threshold Twelfth Tyranny Until Vacuum

Make a concerted effort to be more aware of your diction, spelling, and word choice so that you are not misusing words in your daily written communication. Additionally, there are numerous online lists and spelling reference guides that provide helpful resources to assist the writer in catching spelling mistakes before they happen.