23 difficult words to spell

Of course, not everyone spells these words wrong – but lots of people do! Let’s take a look
at a few words that are always putting our spelling to the test. From sneaky silent letters to
devious double letters, English sure doesn’t make spelling easy.

1. weird (wierd)
Breaking everyone’s favourite spelling rule – ‘i’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c’ – the
word weird is, well, weird.

2. accommodate (acommodate, accomodate)

The easiest way to remember the two double letter pairings in accommodate is to remember
that this word ‘accommodates’ a lot of letters.

3. handkerchief (hankerchief)
The lurking ‘d’ in handkerchief can be remembered by thinking about the fact that these
squares of nose-blowing cloth fit in one’s hand. Don’t get confused by the shortened hanky!
(Nor should you try adding a ‘d’ in there: handky is far from correct.)

4. indict (indite)
The silence ‘c’ in indict (and related words indictment, indictable, etc.) baffles lots of
people, both in its spelling and its pronunciation.

5. cemetery (cemetary)
Though many are tempted, there is no ‘a’ in cemetery. You might contrast the word
with graveyard, which has two ‘a’s.

6. conscience (conscence, conscious)

The first step is to avoid confusing conscience – a person’s moral sense of right and wrong
(noun) – and conscious – aware and responding to one’s surroundings (adjective). Once
you clear that hurdle, you need to make sure that ‘science’ makes an appearance in your
spelling.

7. rhythm (rythm, rhythym, etc.)

This notorious word boasts only a single vowel – and ‘y’, at that! – plus a couple of ‘h’s
running amok. The related word rhyme is only slightly easier.

8. playwright (playwrite)
Even though playwrights do write, the ‘wright’ in this word actually refers to a builder, as
in similar words like shipwright. You can remember this by thinking of a playwright as
someone who ‘builds’ a theatre experience.

9. embarrass (embarass, embaress)

This word unequivocally demonstrates that language has a sense of humour. Why else
make the word embarrass embarrassingly difficult to spell?
10. millennium (millenium)
The incorrect spelling of millennium with only a single ‘n’ is very common, possibly
because similar words, such as millenarian and millenary, follow this single ‘n’ pattern.
When you’re talking about the ‘millennial’ generation, take to care to keep that second ‘n’
in there.

11. pharaoh (pharoh)

Given the world’s fascination with ancient Egypt, you’d think that the word for their rulers
wouldn’t present such a problem, but the sneaky ‘ao’ in the second syllable is a tricky one.

12. liaison (liason)

Both liaison and liaise boast that tricky triple vowel, a gift from French.

13. convalesce (convalece)

The -sce ending in convalesce is a spelling difficulty that crops in several English words
that have a Latin origin, including acquiesce, coalesce, and incandesce.

14. supersede (supercede)

Derived from the Latin word supersedere, this word is frequently misspelled
as supercede thanks to the influence of words like accede and intercede.

15. ecstasy (ecstacy)

Ecstasy may turn to despair when you realize that you’ve assumed that the ‘c’ at the start
of ecstasy makes a later reappearance.

16. Caribbean (Carribean, Caribean)

The Caribbean tropics may seem slightly less alluring once you realize how much trouble
you have spelling this name.

17. harass (harrass)

While harass may have two different pronunciations, it doesn’t have two r’s!

18. maintenance (maintainence)

Although maintenance often implies the maintaining of something, the word does not
have maintain in it.

19. pronunciation (pronounciation)

Even though the verb form of this word is pronounce, the noun – pronunciation – does not
have that ‘o’ in the middle. Before writing the word out, you might try saying
both pronunciation and pronounce out loud and hear the difference yourself.

20. Arctic (Artic)

Although the pronunciation without the ‘c’ sound is considered acceptable, the spelling still
requires that the ‘c’ be present. (The same goes for Antarctica.)

21. occurred (ocurred, occured)

Make sure that you double both the ‘c’ and the ‘r’ when you use the past tense of occur!
Many verbs ending in a single ‘r’ will take a double ‘r’ in the past tense, such
as recur, blur, and refer.

22. recommend (reccommend, reccomend)

Another double-letter kerfuffle, recommend might seem as though it deserves a second ‘c’,
but the word only has one.

23. deductible (deductable)

This word is one of many examples of -ibles and -ables that may easily be confused. Check
out ‘Words ending in -able or -ible’ for help on figuring these out.