Appendix B

Commonly Misspelled Words

Aside from homophones (see Appendix A), spelling checkers do a good job of catching and correcting misspellings, but spelling checkers are not always available, as with an on-the-spot job application or during a test. Below are three lists of words that are “everyday spelling demons” for many people—relatively common words that are often misspelled. These lists focus on U.S. (rather than British) spellings.

20 Words Often Misspelled

There is considerable disagreement when it comes to listing the most common or most distracting misspellings, but here is our list of 20 common words that are especially likely to cause spelling problems for many adults. This list excludes homophones and proper nouns.

12 Proper Nouns Often Misspelled

A proper noun is the “official” name of a person, place, or thing. Below is a list of proper nouns that people frequently misspell. The list excludes people’s names unless they can also be a different type of proper noun. Place names are limited to states in the United States.

More Words Often Misspelled

The previous lists provide a starting place for honing your spelling skills. Here is a more complete list of commonly misspelled words.

apologize

appreciate

angel

arctic

arithmetic

athlete

becoming

beginning

believe

building

bureau(cracy)

calendar

cemetery

changeable

coming

commitment

committee

descent

dilemma

delicious

develop

disease

embarrass(ment)

existence

familiar

foreign

giraffe

grammar

handkerchief

harass(ment)

height

heroes

humorous

incidentally

interest(ing)

laboratory

leisure

library

license

marriage

mischievous

mother

necessary

neighbor

noticeable

nuclear

occasion

occurrence

pneumonia

possess(ion)

potato

pastime

permanent(ly)

privilege

probably

rebellion

recommend

referring

resistance

restaurant

rhythm

sandwich

secretary

subtle

surprise

suspicious

tattoo

through

tomorrow

tongue

truly

until

vacuum

veteran

villain

yield