102 Frequently Misspelled Words
What are your most frequently misspelled words? Every writer, of almost every age, has some.
We've compiled our own list of most frequently misspelled words, based on several reference books and our own experiences. To keep our list relatively short, we've included the words you're most likely to use in everyday writing.
Also, we've include just one form of several troublesome words. For example, we included recommend, but not recommended, recommending, and recommendation. Check our our quick quiz below.
Printable list of our 102 Frequently Misspelled Words
| absence | excellent | pneumonia |
| accidentally | excitement | possess |
| accommodate | experience | practically |
| achieve | familiar | preferred |
| acquaintance | fascinate | privilege |
| against | favorite | probably |
| a lot | February | raspberry |
| already | finally | realize |
| argument | foreign | receive |
| attendance | friend | recommend |
| because | government | remember |
| beginning | grammar | restaurant |
| believe | guarantee | rhythm |
| business | height | ridiculous |
| calendar | immediately | schedule |
| cemetery | independent | scissors |
| chief | instead | separate |
| committee | interrupt | similar |
| conscience | judgment | sincerely |
| convenience | leisure | straight |
| courageous | library | strengthen |
| criticize | lightning | studying |
| decision | lonely | summarize |
| definitely | lying | surprise |
| desperately | millionaire | thorough |
| dictionary | mischievous | tomorrow |
| different | necessary | truly |
| disease | niece | until |
| doesn't | noticeable | vacuum |
| embarrass | occasion | vegetable |
| enough | occurred | Wednesday |
| environment | opposite | weight |
| especially | particular | weird |
| exaggerate | physical | yacht |
Quick Quiz:
Which of these words in these sentences are spelled incorrectly? Do you know how to fix them?
1. Our superintendant is closing school early tommorow.
2. He hopes to aquire new computre sofware for our middle school.
3. A police officer anounced their have been counterfiet doller bills in our city.
4. Our small deparment is not equiped to handel the situation.
5. The state police labortory will definitly help with the investigation.
Scroll down for the answers.
Helpful Resources
Spelling Quizzes from the Evening News - Four fun spelling exercises. Can your students find and correct all the mistakes in these news reports? Many of the misspelled words appear on the list above.
Spelling Lessons - See our collection of tips and explanations, including help on spelling numbers!
Many of the most misspelled words in English are actually mistakes made with homonyms. See our lists and explanations of 50 sets of homonyms:
Troublesome Homonyms Explained, Part 1: Improve spelling skills by choosing the correct homonym. Will this man's fare be fair? Do you know how to use its and it's? What about past and passed or capital and capitol? There's bound to be something here you need to review or learn! Definitions and examples included for homonyms beginning with A - P. Free printable list.
Troublesome homonyms Explained, Part 2: If your/you’re ever to/too/two confused to use the correct homonym, print out this free, handy reference tool! This list features homonyms for the remainder of the alphabet, beginning with P - Y.
Other Lists of Frequently Misspelled Words
NEW! 200 Difficult Words to Spell What's more difficult than a horse walking on a tightrope? Maybe it's spelling all 200 of these difficult English words correctly the first time! Use this list as study bee prep or for classroom reference. It's ideal for students, teachers and parents.
172 Hard Words to Spell Study what makes these words (and so many others) so difficult to spell! Improve your spelling skills as you master the challenge words on this list. Learn more about unfamiliar words, words with tricky vowel combinations, silent consonants, double consonants and more. Follow the links to additional word lists and study tools! Words on the list include abecedarian, absquatulate, boutonniere, cappuccino, connoisseur, diaphanous, impuissance, logorrhea, pastiche, psephology, querulous, rinceau, terpsichorean, and many, many more.
Tricky Elementary Spelling Words - Students in grades 2-5 sometimes need extra practice with these 100 common words.
300 Commonly Misspelled Words - Skim this long list of words to find the ones you misspell the most often. Then follow the tips on this page to master their correct spellings. Why make the same mistakes over and over again when you CAN improve your spelling skills?! A free printable page is included, along with many additional helpful resources.
Difficult English Spelling Words - Our list of 285 words spelled with IE and EI . Use this list to learn and practice the words you use most. Expand your skills and vocabulary with words you don't know. Use our free Step by Step spelling lesson plans to learn more about mastering these words.
Spelling Demons - Sometimes the words that trip us up are those that are easily-confused with other words, like desert/dessert and allusion/illusion. Master this list to improve your spelling skills.
How to Study Frequently Misspelled Words
- 1. Read good literature. You'll see the most important words spelled correctly and used in context. Read newspapers and high-quality, reputable blogs.
- 2. Study word lists, like the ones on this page. Ask someone to quiz you.
- 3. Keep a list of the words that are most difficult for you. Learn as much as you can about these words by looking them up in a good dictionary, such as www.dictionary.com or a good hard copy resource. Read about the word meaning, language of origin and other clues that will help you to remember the word, inside and out!
- 4. Practice writing your most challenging words, again and again. If you want to keep this practice interesting, use some these spelling homework ideas.
Quick
Quiz Answers:
All five sentences have misspellings. Here are the correct spellings:
1. superintendent, tomorrow 2. acquire, computer, software 3. announced, there, counterfeit, dollar 4. department, equipped, handle 5. laboratory, definitely
Ann Richmond Fisher is a longtime published educational writer, a former classroom teacher and a former homeschool teacher. Ann's spelling bee resources, graded spelling word lists, spelling games, worksheets, and other language arts resources have become respected around the globe since she launched Spelling-Words-Well in 2010.
Ann is also the creator of www.word-game-world.com.
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