Words we commonly misspell


Most of these 156 words are commonly misspelled because they are in conflict with our few spelling ‘rules’, so the only way to learn their correct spelling is by rote. To that end, I have broken them up into groups of six so that you can learn them one group at a time.





A
1 absence
2 acceptable
3 accidentally
4 accommodate
5 achieve
6 acquire

B
7 acquit(tal)
8 address
9 amateur
10 annihilate
11 apparel
12 apparent

C
13 argument
14 arthritis
15 assessor
16 assistant
17 attendance
18 auxiliary

D
19 awkward
20 basically
21 beginning
22 believe
23 beneficiary
24 benefit

E
25 blatant
26 brief
27 business
28 caffeine
29 calendar
30 calorie

F
31 ceiling
32 cemetery
33 challenge
34 changeable
35 chief
36 collectible

G
37 committed
38 compatible
39 competent
40 concede
41 conscience
42 conscientious

H
43 conscious
44 consensus
45 correspondence
46 courtesy
47 criticize
48 deceive

I
49 definite
50 describe
51 despise
52 desperate
53 develop
54 diesel

J
55 dilemma
56 disappear
57 disappoint
58 discipline
59 ecstasy
60 embarrass

K
61 exhilarate
62 exceed
63 existence
64 experience
65 fiery
66 foreign

L
67 gauge
68 generally
69 graffiti
70 grammar
71 grateful
72 guarantee

M
73 harass
74 height
75 heir
76 hierarchy
77 ignorance
78 hypocrisy

N
79 incidentally
80 independent
81 indispensable
82 intelligence
83 irrelevant
84 leisure

O
85 liaison
86 lightning
87 maintenance
88 marriage
89 memento
90 millennium

P
91 miniature
92 mischief
93 mischievous
94 murmur
95 naive
96 necessary

Q
97 noticeable
98 noxious
99 occasion
100 occasionally
101 occurred
102 occurrence

R
103 official
104 parallel
105 parliament
106 pastime
107 pharmaceutical
108 possession

S
109 preceding
110 preferable
111 preferred
112 prerogative
113 prevalent
114 privilege

T
115 proceed
116 publicly
117 pursue
118 questionnaire
119 recede
120 receipt

U
121 receive
122 recommend
123 recurrence
124 referred
125 reference
126 relevant

V
127 religious
128 repetition
129 resistance
130 ridiculous
131 rhyme
132 rhythm

W
133 sacrilegious
134 sandal
135 scissors
136 seize
137 sensible
138 separate

X
139 siege
140 spaghetti
141 success
142 supersede
143 surveillance
144 tobacco

Y
145 tomorrow
146 threshold
147 tragedy
148 trauma
149 twelfth
150 tyranny

Z
151 undoubtedly
152 unprecedented
153 until
154 vicious
155 weird
156 withhold