The term "commonly misspelled words" (or rarely, "common misspelled words") refers to the practice of often misspelling some common words, in general writing.
A selected list of common words is presented below, under: Documented list of common misspellings.

Although the word "common" is subjective depending on the situation, the focus is on general writing, rather than in a specific field. Official spellings also vary by country or region, with some rejecting the American or British variants

American and British English spelling differences

One of the ways in which American English and British English differ is in spelling.-Historical origins:In the early 18th century, English spelling was not standardized. Differences became noticeable after the publishing of influential dictionaries...

 as incorrect for the region.

Within a particular field of study, such as computer graphics

Computer graphics

Computer graphics are graphics created using computers and, more generally, the representation and manipulation of image data by a computer with help from specialized software and hardware....

, other words might be more common for misspelling, such as "pixel" misspelled as "pixle" (or variants "cesium" and "caesium"). Sometimes words are purposely misspelled, as a form in slang, abbreviation

Abbreviation

An abbreviation is a shortened form of a word or phrase. Usually, but not always, it consists of a letter or group of letters taken from the word or phrase...

s, or in song lyrics

Lyrics

Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...

, etc.

In general writing, some words are frequently misspelled, such as the incorrect spelling "concensus" for "consensus"

found in numerous webpages on the Internet. Other common misspellings include "equiptment" (for "equipment"),
"independant" (for "independent"),
"readible" (for readable),
or "usible" (for usable

USable

USable is a special idea contest to transfer US American ideas into practice in Germany. USable is initiated by the German Körber-Stiftung .It is doted with 150,000 Euro and awarded every two years. All persons which know Germany and the USA from their own experience can take part in the contest...

/useable).

Unlimited misspellings

Because many words can be extended with prefixes (such as "un-" or "anti-" or "re-") or suffixes (such as "-ly" or "-ing" or "-ness"), a comprehensive list of words prone to misspelling would contain thousands of variations from combining prefixes or suffixes (or both) added to the root words. To limit the scope to common words, the top 350 words are considered (according to various sources).

Documented list of common misspellings

The following list, of about 350 words, is based on documented lists of the top 100, 200, or 400 most commonly misspelled words, rather than listing every conceivable misspelled word. Each word is followed by examples of misspellings:

A–B

absence – absense, absance acceptable – acceptible accidentally/accidently – accidentaly accommodate – accomodate, acommodate achieve – acheive acknowledge – acknowlege, aknowledge acquaintance – acquaintence, aquaintance acquire – aquire, adquire acquit – aquit acreage – acrage, acerage address – adress adultery – adultary advisable – adviseable, advizable affect – effect aggression – agression, aggresion alcohol – alchohol allege – alege, allage allegiance – allegaince, allegience, alegiance almost – allmost a lot – alot (must be two words) amateur – amatuer, amature

amend – ammend annually – anually, annualy apparent – apparant, aparent arctic – artic argument – arguement atheist – athiest average – avrage, averege awful – awfull, aweful balance – ballance, balence basically – basicly because – becuase becoming – becomeing beginning – begining believe – beleive bellwether – bellweather buoy/buoyant – bouy/bouyant burglar – burgler business – bisness, bussiness, bizness, buisness

C–D

calendar – calender camouflage – camoflage, camoflague capitol – capital(both words exist, but are distinct) career – carrer careful – carefull Caribbean – Carribean category – catagory caught – cauhgt, caugt ceiling – cieling cemetery – cemetary, cematery certain – certin changeable – changable chief – cheif citizen – citezen colleague – collaegue, collegue collectible – collectable column – colum comfortable - confortable coming – comming committed – commited, comitted competition – compitition concede – conceed conceive - concieve congratulate – congradulate conscientious – consciencious conscious – concious, consious

consensus – concensus controversy – contraversy convenience – conveniance coolly – cooly criticize – critecize, critisize daiquiri – dacquiri, daquiri deceive – decieve decide – dicide definite – definate, definit definitely – definitly, definately, defiantly desperate – desparate develop – develope difference – diffrence dilemma – dilema disappear – disapear, dissapear disappoint – disapoint disastrous – disasterous drunkenness – drunkeness dumbbell – dumbell during – durring

E–H

easily – easely eighth – eigth either – iehter, ether embarrass – embarass entrepreneur – enterpreneur environment – enviroment equipped – equiped equipment – equiptment (wrong in numerous webpages) exaggerate – exagerate exceed – excede excellent – exellent, excelent except – exsept exercise – exercize, exersize exhausted - exausted exhilarate – exilerate existence – existance expect - exspect experience – experiance experiment – experament explanation – explaination extreme – extreem familiar – familier fascinating – facinating, fasinating fiery – firey finally – finaly

fluorescent – flourescent fluoride – flouride foreign – foriegn forty – fourty forward – foreward friend – freind fulfil – fullfil (American: fulfill) fundamental – fundemental gauge – guage generally – generaly, genrally government – goverment grammar – grammer grateful – gratefull, greatful guarantee – garantee, garentee, garanty guidance – guidence happiness – happyness harass – harrass height – heighth, heigth heroes – heros hierarchy – heirarchy hors d'oeuvres – hors derves, ordeurves humorous – humerous hygiene – hygene, hygine, higeine, hygeine hypocrisy/hypocrite – hipocrit

I–K

identity – idenity, identidy ignorance – ignorence imaginary – imaginery imitate – immitate imitation – immitation, imitashun immediately – imediately incidentally – incidently independent – independant indispensable – indispensible inoculate – innoculate intelligence – inteligence, intelligance interesting – intresting

interfere interpretation interruption – interuption irrelevant – irrelevent irritable – irritible island – iland jealous – jellous jewelry (UK: jewellery) – jewelery judgment – judgement (issue in the U.S.) kernel – kernal, distinct from homophone colonel kindergarten - kindergarden knowledge – knowlege

L–O

leisure – liesure liaison – liason library – libary, liberry license – lisence (US always license, UK noun licence) lightning – lightening loneliness – lonelyness lose – loose losing – loosing, loseing lying – lieing maintenance – maintenence, maintnance maneuver – manuever, manuver (UK: manoeuvre) marriage – marrige masturbation—masterbation mathematics – mathmatics medicine – medcine medieval – medeval, medevil, mideval memento – momento millennium – millenium, milennium miniature – miniture minuscule – miniscule minute – minite

mischievous – mischevous, mischevious misspell – mispell, misspel mysterious – misterius, misterious naturally – naturaly necessary – neccessary, necessery niece – neice neighbor – nieghbor neither – niether noticeable – noticable occasion – occassion occasionally – occasionaly, occassionally occurrence – occurrance, occurence occurred – occured official – oficial often – offen omission – ommision, omision operate – oprate opportunity – oppurtunity optimism – optimisim original – orignal ought outrageous – outragous

P–Q

paid – payed parallel – parrallel, parellel parliament – parliment particularly – particurly pastime – passtime, pasttime peculiar – peculier perceive – percieve perform – preform permanent – pernament perseverance – perseverence personally – personaly personnel – personell, personel persuade – persaude pervious - (1) pervious, (2) previous; check individually picture – pichure, pitcher piece – peice planning – planing plagiarize – plagerize playwright – playright, playwrite pleasant – plesant political – pollitical possession – posession, possesion potatoes – potatos practical – practicle

precede – preceed prejudice – predjudice presence – presance primitive – primative principle – principal privilege – privelege, priviledge probably – probly professional – proffesional professor – professer promise – promiss pronunciation – pronounciation proof – prufe prophecy (as noun) – prophesy (valid as verb) psychology – psycology publicly – publically quantity – quanity quarantine – quarentine queue – que (from Bar-B-Que) questionnaire – questionaire, questionnair quite – distinct from quiet

R–S

readable – readible realize – relize, reelize really – realy receive – recieve receipt – reciept recognize – reconize, reckonize recommend – recomend, reccommend referred – refered reference – referance, refrence relevant – relevent, revelant religious – religous, religius repetition – repitition restaurant – restarant, restaraunt rhyme – rime, ryme rhythm – rythm, rythem ridiculous – rediculous, ridicolous sacrifice – sacrefice safety – saftey, safty scissors – sissors

secretary – secratary, secretery seize – sieze separate – seperate sergeant – sargent shining – shineing similar – similer, simmilar, simular sincerely – sinceerly skilful – skilfull (American: skillful) soldier – solider speech – speach, speeche (archaic) stopping – stoping strength – strenght succeed – succede successful – succesful, successfull, sucessful supersede - supercede surely – surelly surprise – suprise, surprize

T–Z

their – they're tomatoes – tomatos tomorrow – tommorrow twelfth – twelth tyranny – tyrany underrate – underate until – untill upholstery – upholstry usable/useable – usible

using – useing usually – usualy vacuum – vaccuum, vacume vegetarian – vegatarian vehicle – vehical vicious – visious weather – wether weird – wierd welfare – wellfare, welfair whether – wether wilful – wilfull (American: willful) withhold – withold writing – writting, writeing

Mispronunciation

Mispronunciation

Mispronunciation

Mispronunciation is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "incorrect or inaccurate pronunciation". The matter of what is or is not mispronunciation is a contentious one, and indeed there is some disagreement about the extent to which the term is even meaningful...

 is known to be one of the most common causes of misspelling.
Hence, phonetic misspelling is common, once a word is mispronounced; for example, the word "realize" is misspelled as "relize".

Typing errors

Some spelling errors are introduced because people's typing is not perfect, such as

• letters are doubled, or more frequently double letters tripled, such as "betwween" and "betweeen"
• letters are singled, such as "betwen"
• keys are transposed, so "because" becomes "becuase". (see Teh
  Teh
  Teh is an Internet slang neologism most frequently used as an English article, based on a common typographical error of "the". Teh has subsequently developed grammatical usages distinct from the...
  
  )

Some of the errors listed may be due to mistyping rather than ignorance, for example "solider" for "soldier".

These misspellings rarely happen in handwritten text.

Homophones

Two differently spelt words with different meanings may be homophone

Homophone

A homophone is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning. The words may be spelled the same, such as rose and rose , or differently, such as carat, caret, and carrot, or to, two, and too. Homophones that are spelled the same are also both homographs and homonyms...

s, with the same pronunciation; e.g., right, rite, wright, and write; read (most tense

Grammatical tense

A tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:...

s of verb) and reed; read (past

Past tense

The past tense is a grammatical tense that places an action or situation in the past of the current moment , or prior to some specified time that may be in the speaker's past, present, or future...

, past participle) and red. This list includes only a few homophones although incorrect use of homophones is a very common error; the following words from the list are all good English words, though often incorrectly used in place of their homophones: advice, affect, artic (colloquial UK usage for "articulated lorry"), aweful, breath, calender, capital, dose, its, lightening, loose, loosing, planing, principal, rime, solider, stoping, they're, wether and you're. Spelling checkers do not detect incorrect use of homophones.

Personal names

Personal names and surname

Surname

A surname is a name added to a given name and is part of a personal name. In many cases, a surname is a family name. Many dictionaries define "surname" as a synonym of "family name"...

s may be pronounced like a standard English word, but with different spelling: "balance" and "John Ballance"; "war" and "Evelyn Waugh"; "marshal" and "George Marshall". Personal names do of course generally start with a capital letter.

Foreign writers

A misspelling in English might be made by someone used to a different spelling in another language; for example, "address" is translated "adresse" in French and German. Many Spanish words are similar or identical to English words, but with an "n" inserted, or replacing an "m", leading to errors: "inmigrant" from "inmigrante", "cementery" from "cementerio", "confortable". The English word 'loose' reasonably looks like it should be pronounced as 'lose' to Germans, as in German the lone 's' often has the sound of an English 'z', and a lone 'o' in English very seldom has the 'oo' sound.

Strange misspellings

Sometimes words are misspelled so strangely that one would never guess. These misspellings are often one-off typographical errors, for example: "sucseessor" for "successor".

Concatenation

While "albeit" is a correct concatenation

Concatenation

In computer programming, string concatenation is the operation of joining two character strings end-to-end. For example, the strings "snow" and "ball" may be concatenated to give "snowball"...

 of "all be it", "upto" is not yet a recognized concatenation of "up to". "Alright" is often accepted for "all right".

Apostrophes

There can be confusion over a plural possessive form. If the singular is "book's title" and the plural "books' titles", the latter can appear as "book's", or even "books's". The plural can be written with an erroneous apostrophe ("grocer's apostrophe" in Britain): "apple's and pear's". Elision

Elision

Elision is the omission of one or more sounds in a word or phrase, producing a result that is easier for the speaker to pronounce...

can lead to misspelling: "doesn't", where the apostrophe represents the elided "o", can be misspelled "does'nt".

External links

• "100 Most Often Misspelled Words in English", LoveToKnow, Corp., December 2008, webpage: YDict-100.