Commonly misspelled words in English with memorisation tips

1. Why spelling matters

English spelling can be tricky, even for native speakers. The language has borrowed words from Latin, French, Greek, German, and dozens of other languages over centuries. This causes spelling rules that do not follow any logical patterns.

Understanding commonly misspelled words in English is essential for anyone who wants to improve their writing skills, whether for academic work, professional correspondence, or everyday communication.

Spelling errors can undermine your credibility. A CV with misspelled words may cost you a job interview. An email riddled with mistakes might make colleagues question your attention to detail. Academic essays with spelling errors can result in lost marks. While spell checkers catch many mistakes, they cannot identify every error, particularly when you have typed a real word that is simply the wrong one for the context.

In this comprehensive guide, I have compiled 200+ commonly misspelled words in English. I explain why people often write them incorrectly. I also provides memorisation tricks to help you remember their correct spellings.

2. Why are some words so difficult to spell?

Before learning specific words, let's try to understand why certain English words cause so much trouble. Research from Oxford University Press and other linguistic institutions has identified several factors that contribute to spelling difficulties.

2.1 Mispronunciation and phonetic confusion

One of the most common causes of misspelling is mispronunciation. When we do not clearly articulate all the sounds in a word, we may struggle to spell it correctly. For example, many people pronounce "definitely" as "definately" and consequently misspell it. Similarly, "separate" is often mispronounced with an "e" sound in the middle rather than an "a", leading to the common error "seperate".

The word "February" loses its first "r" in casual speech for many speakers, which explains why "Febuary" appears so frequently. "Library" becomes "libary" when the middle syllable is swallowed. Being aware of the correct pronunciation can significantly improve your spelling of these troublesome words.

2.2 Double letter dilemmas

Double letters present a particular challenge because English has no consistent rules about when to double consonants. Words like "accommodate" (two c's and two m's), "occurrence" (two c's and two r's), and "embarrass" (two r's and two s's) are commonly misspelled. Sometimes writers know a double letter exists somewhere in the word but place it incorrectly, writing "accomodate" or "occurence".

2.3 Silent letters

English is full of silent letters that serve no phonetic purpose but must be included in the correct spelling. The "b" in "doubt" and "subtle", the "k" in "knife" and "knight", the "w" in "wrong" and "wreath", and the "p" in "psychology" and "pneumonia" all catch writers off guard. These silent letters often reflect the word's etymology but provide no audible clue to their presence.

2.4 Foreign origins

Many challenging English words retain spellings from their languages of origin. French loanwords like "bureau", "liaison", "entrepreneur", and "hors d'oeuvres" keep their Continental spelling patterns. Greek-derived words such as "rhythm", "psychology", and "diarrhoea" follow different conventions. Latin contributions like "millennium" and "consensus" have their own patterns. Without knowledge of these source languages, the spellings can seem arbitrary.

2.5 Homophones and near-homophones

Words that sound identical or nearly identical but have different spellings and meanings cause endless confusion. "Their", "there", and "they're" are perhaps the most notorious examples, but English has hundreds of such word pairs and triplets. Spell checkers cannot catch these errors because each spelling represents a valid English word.

3. Comprehensive list of commonly misspelled words in English

Find below an extensive list of commonly misspelled words in English, organised alphabetically. Each entry shows the correct spelling, typical misspellings, and a brief tip to help you remember the correct form.

✗ absense, abcense

Think: absent has an "e", absence has an "e" too

✗ acceptible

Accept + able = acceptable

✗ accidentaly, accidently

Accidental + ly (keep both l's)

✗ accomodate, acommodate

This word accommodates two c's and two m's

✗ acheive

"I before e" applies here: ach-i-eve

✗ acknowlege, aknowledge

Ack + knowledge (know + ledge)

✗ acquaintence, aquaintance

Acquaint + ance (not -ence)

✗ aquire, adquire

AC + quire (like choir)

✗ accross

One c is enough to cross

✗ adress

Add + dress = address

✗ agressive

Two g's make it more aggressive

✗ alot

Always two words; "alot" is not a word

✗ amatuer, amature

A mate who is new: a-mate-ur

✗ apparant, aparent

Two p's, then -arent (like parent)

✗ arguement

Argue loses its "e" when forming argument

✗ athiest

The "e" comes before the "i"

✗ beatiful, beautyful

Big Elephants Are Ugly: b-e-a-u-tiful

✗ becuase, becasue

Big Elephants Can Always Understand Small Elephants

✗ begining

Begin + n + ing (double the n)

✗ beleive

Never believe a lie: beLIEve

✗ bizzare, bizare

One z, two r's: bi-z-arre

✗ boundry

Bound + ary (keep the a)

✗ brocolli, brocoli

Two c's, one l

✗ beaurocracy, burocracy

Bureau + cracy

✗ buisness

Bus-i-ness (a busy bus)

✗ calender

Ends in -ar, not -er

✗ camoflage, camoflague

Camo-u-flage (don't forget the "u")

✗ Carribean, Caribean

One r, two b's

✗ catagory

Cat-e-gory (not cat-a-gory)

✗ cemetary, cematery

Three e's, no a's: "Eek!" in the cemetery

✗ changable

Keep the "e" to keep the soft "g" sound

✗ collegue, collaegue

Coll-ea-gue (like league)

✗ colum, coloumn

Silent "n" at the end

✗ commited, comitted

Commit + ted (double the t)

✗ commitee, comittee

Double m, double t, double e

✗ completly

Complete + ly

✗ concience, consience

Con + science

✗ consciencious

Conscience becomes conscientious (t not c)

✗ concious, consious

Con-sci-ous (science in the middle)

✗ concensus

Con + sensus (not census)

✗ contraversy

Contro + versy (not contra)

✗ decieve

"I before e except after c": dec-ei-ve

✗ definately, definatly, defiantly

There's a finite in definitely

✗ desparate

Des-per-ate (think "despair" without the i)

✗ diarhea, diarrhea

Dash In A Real Rush, Hurry Or Else Accident (British spelling)

✗ diffrence

Differ + ence

✗ dilema, dilemna

Emma faces a dilemma (double m, no n)

✗ dissapear, disapear

Dis + appear (one s, two p's)

✗ dissapoint, disapoint

Dis + appoint (one s, two p's)

✗ disasterous

Disaster drops the "e" to become disastrous

✗ disipline, discpline

Disc + i + pline

✗ drunkeness

Drunken + ness (double n)

✗ dumbell, dumbel

Dumb + bell (two separate words)

✗ embarass, embarras

Two r's, two s's: I go Really Red and Start Sweating

✗ enviroment

Environ + ment (keep the n)

✗ equiptment

Equip + ment (no t before ment)

✗ exagerate

Two g's exaggerate the word

✗ excede

Ex + ceed (double e)

✗ excelent, excellant

Excel + lent (double l)

✗ excercise, exersize

Ex-er-cise (not exc-er)

✗ existance

Exist + ence (not -ance)

✗ experiance

Ends in -ience (not -iance)

✗ extremly

Extreme + ly

✗ familar, familliar

Your family is familiar (one l)

✗ facinating

Fasc-in-ating (keep the sc)

✗ Febuary

Feb-ru-ary (don't skip the first r)

✗ firey

Fire drops "e" but adds "y": fier-y

✗ flourescent, florescent

Flu-or-escent

✗ foriegn

Exception to "i before e": for-eig-n

✗ fourty

Four becomes forty (drops the "u")

✗ freind

I'll be your friEND to the END

✗ fullfil, fulfill

One l in the middle, one at the end (British)

✗ guage

G-A-U-ge (a before u)

✗ goverment, governmant

Govern + ment (keep the n)

✗ grammer

Ends in -ar not -er

✗ greatful, gratefull

Grate + ful (not great)

✗ garantee, garentee

Guard with a guarantee (gua-)

✗ guidence

Guide + ance

✗ hankerchief

Hand + kerchief

✗ harrass

One r, two s's (it's truly harassing)

✗ heighth, heigth

No "th" at the end (unlike width)

✗ heirarchy, hierachy

Hier-arch-y

✗ humerous

Humour + ous (not humerus, the bone)

✗ hygene, hygine, hygeine

Hy-gi-ene

✗ hypocracy

Ends in -isy not -acy

✗ ignorence

Ignor + ance (not -ence)

✗ imediately, immediatly

Immediate + ly

✗ incidently

Incidental + ly

✗ independant

Ends in -ent not -ant

✗ indispensible

Ends in -able not -ible

✗ innoculate

One n, one c

✗ inteligence, intelligance

Intelli-gence

✗ intresting

Inter-est-ing (don't skip the second e)

✗ interupt

Inter + rupt (double r)

✗ irresistable

Ends in -ible not -able

✗ jewelery, jewlery

Jewel + lery (British spelling)

✗ judgment

Keep the "e" in British English

✗ knowlege, knoledge

Know + ledge

✗ langauge, langage

Lang-u-age (don't forget the u)

✗ liesure

Exception to "i before e": lei-sure

✗ liason, liaision

Li-ai-son (two i's)

✗ libary, liberry

Lib-rar-y (two r's)

✗ license (as noun)

In British English: noun = licence, verb = license

✗ lightening

No "e" (lightening means making lighter)

✗ loose

Lose has one "o" (loose is the opposite of tight)

✗ maintainance, maintnance

Main + ten + ance

✗ manoeuver, maneuver

British spelling keeps -oe-

✗ medeval, medevil

Medi-ev-al

✗ momento

Mem-ento (think "memory")

✗ millenium, milenium

Mill + enn + ium (double l, double n)

✗ miniture

Mini + ature (keep the a)

✗ miniscule

Related to "minus", not "mini"

✗ mischievious, mischevous

Mis-chie-vous (no i after the v)

✗ mispell, misspel

Mis + spell (double s)

✗ neccessary, necessery

One c, two s's: one Collar, two Sleeves

✗ nieghbor, nieghbour

Exception to "i before e": neigh-bour

✗ neice

"I before e" applies: n-ie-ce

✗ ninty

Nine + ty (keep the e)

✗ noticable

Keep the "e" for the soft "c" sound

✗ occassion, ocasion

Two c's, one s

✗ occasionaly, occassionally

Occasional + ly

✗ occured, ocurred

Double c, double r

✗ occurence, occurrance

Two c's, two r's, ends in -ence

✗ ommision, omision

One m, two s's

✗ paralell, parrallel

Para-ll-el (the l's are parallel)

✗ parliment

Par-lia-ment (I am in parliament)

✗ particuly, particulary

Particular + ly

✗ passtime, pasttime

Pass + time, but only one s and one t

✗ pecuilar

Pec-u-liar

✗ percieve

"I before e except after c": perc-ei-ve

✗ perseverence

Per-sever-ance (ends in -ance)

✗ personell, personel

Person + nel (double n)

✗ pharoah, pharoh

Phar-a-oh

✗ peice

"I before e": p-ie-ce (a piece of pie)

✗ plagerize, plagiarize

Plagi-arise (British spelling uses -ise)

✗ posession, possesion

Two s's in the middle, two s's at the end

✗ potatos

Add "es" for the plural

✗ preceed

Pre-cede (not -ceed)

✗ predjudice

Pre-judice

✗ presance

Present becomes presence (-ence)

✗ principle (when meaning person/main)

The principal is your pal (person/main)

✗ principal (when meaning rule)

A principle is a rule

✗ priviledge, privelege

Privi-lege (no d)

✗ proffession

One f, two s's

✗ proffessor, professer

One f, two s's, ends in -or

✗ pronounciation

Pro-nun-ci-ation (no "o" after the n)

✗ publically

Public + ly (exception to -ically rule)

✗ questionaire, questionnair

Question + naire (double n)

✗ que, cue

Q + ueue (four silent letters)

✗ realy

Real + ly (double l)

✗ reciept

"I before e except after c": rec-ei-pt

✗ recieve

"I before e except after c": rec-ei-ve

✗ recomend, reccommend

One c, two m's

✗ refered

Refer + red (double the r)

✗ referance, refrence

Refer + ence

✗ relevent, revelant

Relev-ant (ends in -ant)

✗ religous

Relig-i-ous (keep the i)

✗ repitition

Repeat becomes repetition

✗ restarant, restraunt

Rest-au-rant

✗ rime, ryhme

Rh-y-me

✗ rythm, rythem, rythym

Rhythm Has Your Two Hips Moving

✗ rediculous

Ri-dic-ulous (starts with ri-)

✗ shedule, scedule

Sch-edule

✗ secratary, secretery

Secret + ary

✗ sieze

Exception to "i before e": s-ei-ze

✗ sensable

Ends in -ible not -able

✗ seperate

There's "a rat" in separate

✗ sargent, sergent

Ser-ge-ant

✗ seige

"I before e": s-ie-ge

✗ similer, similiar

Ends in -ar not -er

✗ sincerly

Sincere + ly

✗ skillful, skilfull

Skill drops an l in British English

✗ speach

Sp-ee-ch (double e)

✗ strenth

Streng-th (don't forget the g)

✗ subpena

Sub-poe-na (silent "b" + "oe")

✗ succede, suceed

Two c's, two e's

✗ succesful, successfull

Success + ful (one l)

✗ supercede

Super-sede (only -sede word in English)

✗ suprise, surprize

Sur-prise (two r's)

✗ temperture, temprature

Temper-a-ture (keep the a)

✗ thorogh, thoro

Thor-ough (like "through" ending)

✗ threshhold

Thresh + old (one h in the middle)

✗ tommorow, tommorrow

One m, two r's

✗ tounge, tung

Ton-gue

✗ truely

True drops the "e" before -ly

✗ twelth, twelvth

Twelf-th (f before th)

✗ tyrany

Double n: tyr-ann-y

✗ underate

Under + rate (double r)

✗ untill

One l at the end

✗ unusuall

Un + usual

✗ vaccuum, vaccum, vacume

One c, two u's

✗ vegatable, vegetible

Vege-table

✗ vehical

Veh-i-cle (ends in -icle)

✗ visious

Vic-ious (vice + ious)

✗ Wendsday, Wensday

Wed-nes-day (WED-NES-DAY)

✗ wierd

Exception to "i before e": w-ei-rd

✗ wether

Wh-ether (a wether is a castrated ram)

✗ willful, wilfull

Will + ful (British: one l in each part)

✗ withold

With + hold (double h)

✗ writting, writeing

Write drops "e", doesn't double "t"

4. Homophones: words that sound alike but differ in spelling

Among the most troublesome commonly misspelled words in English are homophones: words that sound identical but have different spellings and meanings. Spell checkers cannot catch these errors because each spelling is a valid English word. Learning to distinguish between them requires understanding their meanings.

5. British vs American spelling differences

Some words that appear on lists of commonly misspelled words in English are not actually errors but rather reflect differences between British and American spelling conventions. If you are writing for a British audience, use British spellings consistently; if writing for an American audience, use American spellings. The key is consistency throughout your document.

6. Memory tricks and mnemonics

One of the most effective ways to master commonly misspelled words in English is to create memorable associations. Here are some tried-and-tested mnemonics that can help:

7. Common spelling patterns and rules

While English spelling can seem chaotic, certain patterns and rules can help you navigate many of the commonly misspelled words in English.

7.1 The "i before e" rule

The traditional rule states: "i before e, except after c, or when sounded like 'ay' as in neighbour and weigh."

Examples following the rule: believe, achieve, piece, field, relief, niece, receive, ceiling, deceive, perceive, neighbour, weigh, vein, reign

Notable exceptions: weird, seize, either, neither, foreign, leisure, caffeine, protein, species, science, sufficient, conscience

7.2 The -able vs -ible endings

There is no simple rule to distinguish -able from -ible endings, but some patterns can help:

Use -able when:

• The root is a complete word: comfortable, dependable, fashionable
• The root ends in a hard "c" or "g": applicable, navigable
• The root ends in "e" (usually dropped): believable, lovable, usable

Use -ible when:

• The root is not a complete word: audible, credible, feasible, visible
• The root ends in a soft "c" or "g": forcible, legible
• The root ends in -miss or -mit: admissible, permissible

7.3 The -ance vs -ence endings

Similarly, -ance and -ence endings follow loose patterns:

Words ending in -ance/-ant: assistance, attendance, guidance, ignorance, relevance, tolerance, abundant, dominant, elegant, pleasant

Words ending in -ence/-ent: absence, audience, confidence, difference, existence, presence, confident, different, excellent, independent

7.4 Doubling consonants

When adding a suffix beginning with a vowel (-ing, -ed, -er, -est) to a word:

Double the final consonant if:

• The word has one syllable with one vowel followed by one consonant: run → running, stop → stopped
• The word has more than one syllable and the stress falls on the final syllable: begin → beginning, occur → occurred, refer → referred
• In British English, words ending in "l" usually double: travel → travelling, cancel → cancelled

Do not double if:

• The final consonant is preceded by two vowels: need → needing, beat → beating
• The word ends in two consonants: help → helping, start → started
• The stress does not fall on the final syllable: open → opening, benefit → benefited

8. Tips for improving your spelling

Mastering commonly misspelled words in English takes practice, but these strategies can accelerate your progress:

• Read often: Exposure to correctly spelled words reinforces proper spelling in your memory. Reading books, quality newspapers, and academic texts helps embed correct spellings.
• Keep a personal spelling list: When you notice words you frequently misspell, write them down with the correct spelling. Review this list regularly.
• Break words into syllables: Pronouncing each syllable clearly can help you remember which letters to include. Feb-ru-ary, Wed-nes-day, com-fort-able.
• Learn word roots and origins: Understanding that "psychology" comes from Greek "psyche" (mind) helps explain the silent "p". Etymology can illuminate seemingly illogical spellings.
• Use mnemonics: Create memorable phrases or associations for words you struggle with. The sillier, the better—they are easier to remember.
• Write by hand: The physical act of writing engages motor memory, which can help reinforce correct spellings better than typing.
• Proofread carefully: Always review your writing. Read slowly, or read aloud, to catch errors that your eyes might skip over.
• Do not rely solely on spell checkers: While helpful, they cannot distinguish between homophones or catch every error. Use them as a tool, not a crutch.
• Test yourself: Regular practice through spelling tests, dictation, or online quizzes helps identify weak spots and reinforces correct spellings.
• Learn the rules (and exceptions): While English spelling rules have many exceptions, knowing the basic patterns can help you make educated guesses about unfamiliar words.