100 Commonly Misspelled Words

These are the 100 words English speakers get wrong most often — and in almost every case the error is one specific letter, not the whole word.

Each row shows the misspelling people actually type, and the trick for the letter that fails.

Practice these words

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Pick five of these at a time, not fifty. SpellCrush reads each word aloud, uses it in a sentence, and repeats the ones your child gets wrong more often than the ones they get right — which is the whole trick with a list this long.

One honest caveat. Practice is word-by-word: there is no mode yet that shows a sentence with a gap and asks which spelling fits. Everything else is the real session — each word read aloud, its picture, its definition, a hint, three attempts and instant feedback.

Almost every word below fails at one spot. Separate fails at a single vowel. Accommodate fails at two doubled consonants you cannot hear. Wednesday fails at a syllable nobody says out loud. That is good news, because it means you never have to relearn a whole word — only the letter that goes wrong.

The tables are split by roughly when the word starts mattering, but the bands leak in both directions: plenty of adults still write seperate, and plenty of 4th graders can spell rhythm.

Elementary school (30 words)

Short, common words where the error is almost always a swapped or dropped letter. These are worth fixing early, because they appear in nearly everything a child writes.

Correct	Common error	Why it traps you
friend	freind	The i comes first. Your friend is there to the end: fri-END.
because	becuase	The u follows the a nowhere — it is be-CAUSE, and cause is a word you already know.
beautiful	beutiful	Three vowels open it: b-e-a-u. Big Elephants Are Ugly.
people	peaple	It is peo, not pea. People are not vegetables.
which	wich	The h hides after the w, the same as in when, where and why.
sentence	sentance	Ends -ence. A sentence has a sense to it, and both keep the e.
their	thier	Their has heir inside it, and an heir owns things.
said	sed	It sounds like sed but keeps the ai it inherited from say.
does	dose	Do plus es. The o and e stay in that order, or you get a dose of medicine.
receipt	reciept	The e goes first after the c, and the p is silent — you can hear it in receptive.
want	wont	The a is silent-ish but it is there. Won't is a different word entirely.
again	agian	a-GAIN. The word gain is sitting inside it.
little	littel	Double t, then -le. The l comes before the e, as in apple and table.
school	shcool	s-c-h, in that order. The ch makes a k sound, as in chemistry and echo.
family	famly	Three syllables: fam-i-ly. Say all three and the i turns up.
favorite	favrite	fa-vor-ite. The o is easy to swallow when you say it fast.
different	diffrent	dif-fer-ent, three syllables. The middle e is the one that vanishes.
probably	probly	prob-ab-ly. The middle ab is the part speech drops.
Wednesday	Wensday	Say it wrong on purpose: WED-NES-DAY. It is named for the god Woden.
February	Febuary	Feb-RU-ary. The first r is real even though almost nobody says it.
surprise	suprise	Two r's: sur-prise. The first one goes missing in speech.
clothes	close	The th is silent when you say it, but the word is cloth plus es.
know	no	The silent k belongs to the same family as knee, knife and knock.
write	rite	Silent w, like wrist, wrap and wrong. All of them involve twisting.
enough	enuff	The -ough spelling that sounds like uff. Rough and tough do the same.
through	threw	Threw is the past of throw. Through is the one you walk through.
believe	beleive	Never beLIEve a LIE: the word lie sits in the middle, in that order.
beginning	begining	Double n. The stress lands on gin, so the consonant doubles.
children	childern	child plus ren. The r comes after the e, not before it.
tomorrow	tommorow	One m, two r's. It is to plus morrow, an old word for morning.

Middle school (40 words)

Longer words where one syllable gets swallowed in speech, and the missing letter follows the missing sound. Say them slowly and deliberately and half of them fix themselves.

Correct	Common error	Why it traps you
separate	seperate	There is A RAT in sep-a-rat-e.
definitely	definately	The word finite is hiding inside it: de-FINITE-ly. No a anywhere.
necessary	neccessary	One collar, two sleeves: one c, two s's.
receive	recieve	The e goes first straight after a c. This is the half of the i-before-e rhyme that works.
argument	arguement	Argue loses its e when -ment arrives. This one is a genuine oddity.
grammar	grammer	It ends -ar, not -er. Bad grammar will mar your writing.
restaurant	restarant	rest-AU-rant. The au comes from French and does not sound like it looks.
calendar	calender	Ends in -dar, not -der. Look at a calendar on a Monday.
vacuum	vaccum	One c, two u's. It is the only common English word with a double u.
rhythm	rythm	Rhythm Helps Your Two Hips Move. The only vowel sound is the y.
embarrass	embarass	Two r's and two s's — it is doubly embarrassing.
occasion	occassion	Two c's, one s. The opposite of the pattern people expect.
recommend	reccommend	One c, two m's. It is re plus commend.
twelfth	twelth	The f is real: twelve plus th. Almost nobody pronounces it.
until	untill	One l. Till has two, until has one, and that is simply how it is.
weird	wierd	Weird is weird: it breaks the i-before-e rhyme it should follow.
neighbor	nieghbor	The ei here sounds like ay, which is exactly when ei is correct.
height	heigth	It ends -ght like light and night, not -gth like length.
library	libary	li-BRA-ry. The first r is the one speech drops.
environment	enviroment	There is an n before the m: environ-ment.
government	goverment	Govern plus ment. The n survives even though nobody says it.
business	buisness	It is busy with the y swapped for i, plus ness. Busi-ness.
sincerely	sincerly	Sincere keeps its e when -ly is added.
amateur	amature	It ends -eur, from French amateur, a lover of something.
athlete	athelete	Two syllables, not three: ath-lete. There is no e in the middle.
column	colum	Silent n on the end. You can hear it again in columnist.
muscle	mussle	The silent c comes from Latin musculus. Hear it in muscular.
island	iland	Silent s, added by scholars who wrongly thought it came from Latin insula.
answer	anser	Silent w, left over from the old word swerian, to swear.
sword	sord	Silent w again, the same one as in answer and two.
familiar	familar	fa-mil-i-ar. Four syllables, and the i before the ar is the one dropped.
experience	experiance	Ends -ence, not -ance. Experi-ence, like patience and science.
existence	existance	Another -ence word. Exist plus ence.
independent	independant	Ends -ent. Depend plus ent, with no a in sight.
apparent	apparant	Double p, then -ent. A parent is apparent.
immediately	immediatly	Immediate keeps its e before -ly.
guarantee	garantee	It starts gua-, the same opening as guard.
opportunity	oportunity	Two p's. Opportunity knocks twice.
convenient	convienent	con-VEN-ient. The word vein is not in it; the ie comes after the n.
curiosity	curiousity	Curious loses its u before -ity: curi-osity.

The ones adults still get wrong (30 words)

Doubled letters with nothing in the sound to announce them, and borrowed spellings that follow another language's rules. These are the words autocorrect exists for.

Correct	Common error	Why it traps you
accommodate	acommodate	Two c's and two m's — it accommodates both pairs.
occurrence	occurence	Two c's, two r's, and it ends -ence.
privilege	priviledge	No d. It ends -lege, from Latin lex, law.
conscience	concience	con plus science. Your conscience is a science of right and wrong.
conscious	concious	Same sci as conscience, then -ous.
exaggerate	exagerate	Double g. Exaggerating doubles things, and so does the spelling.
maintenance	maintainance	Maintain drops its i when it becomes maintenance.
liaison	liason	Two i's around the a: li-ai-son.
maneuver	manuever	The vowel run is e-u: man-EU-ver, from French manoeuvre.
bureaucracy	beaurocracy	Bureau plus cracy. The eau belongs at the front, as in bureau.
questionnaire	questionaire	Double n, because it came in from French.
millennium	millenium	Two l's and two n's: mille (thousand) plus annus (year).
harass	harrass	One r, two s's — the opposite of embarrass.
perseverance	perserverance	Only one ser. per-se-VER-ance.
acquire	aquire	The c is silent but present: ac-quire, like acquaint and acquit.
acknowledge	aknowledge	ac plus knowledge, silent k and all.
colleague	collegue	It ends -eague, like league. Two l's at the front.
committee	commitee	Double m, double t, double e. Three pairs, which is how committees feel.
consensus	concensus	It comes from consent, not census. All s's after the n.
relevant	revelant	rel comes first, then ev. It shares its root with relate, not reveal.
entrepreneur	entrepeneur	entre-pre-neur. The second r is in the pre, not after it.
hierarchy	heirarchy	hier, not heir. It has nothing to do with inheritance.
indispensable	indispensible	Ends -able, one of the few long words that does.
noticeable	noticable	The e stays to keep the c soft. Without it you would say notikable.
occasionally	occasionaly	Occasional plus ly, so the l doubles.
pronunciation	pronounciation	Pronounce loses its o when it becomes pronunciation.
publicly	publically	No al. It is one of the very few -ic words that takes a bare -ly.
supersede	supercede	The only English word ending -sede. Everything else is -cede or -ceed.
threshold	threshhold	One h in the middle. It is thresh plus old, not hold.
misspell	mispell	mis plus spell, so the s doubles. The word means what it does.

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Hardest Words to Spell

Fifteen words that are hard for a reason: silent letters, borrowed spellings and vowel runs English gives you no help with. Each one explained.

I Before E Rule

Mostly not. The rhyme only holds for the ee sound, and even then weird, seize, neither and foreign break it. Here is the version that actually works.

Doubling the Final Consonant

Hop becomes hopping, hope becomes hoping. The full test has three parts, including the stress rule that explains beginning against opening.

Homophones

Homophones sound the same but are spelled differently. The pairs children get wrong most, each with the meaning, a memory trick and example sentences.

Frequently asked

What is the most commonly misspelled word in English?

Across search data and proofreading studies the same handful comes up: separate (written seperate), definitely (definately), necessary, accommodate and receive. Separate is usually top. All five fail at a single unstressed vowel that nobody pronounces clearly.

Why do people misspell the same words over and over?

Because most misspellings are faithful transcriptions of speech. Nobody says the first r in February or the middle syllable of probably, so nobody writes them. The fix is not more repetition of the whole word — it is drilling the one spot that fails, which is what the trap column here gives you.

How do I help my child stop misspelling a word?

Find the exact letter that goes wrong and attack only that. If they write seperate, they do not need to rewrite the word ten times; they need to know there is a rat in sep-a-rat-e. One vivid hook fixes a word faster than a page of copying, and it survives longer.

Are these words the same for British and American spelling?

Mostly, but not entirely. This list uses US spellings — favorite, traveling. British and Australian English use favourite and travelling, and those are correct there rather than errors. The genuinely hard words on this list, accommodate and separate among them, are spelled the same everywhere.