 This week, I set out to answer a simple question: What are the most difficult words to spell in the English language?
I quickly discovered that I should re-frame the question: What are the most difficult, commonly used words in the English language?
There are plenty of obscure, impossible-to-spell words. These are words used at national spelling bees, such as stichomythia or succedaneum. However, when was the last time you used “succedaneum” in a press release?
Below is a collection of commonplace words that people misspell the most, based on a consensus from online dictionaries (Oxford Dictionaries, Merriam-Webster and Wordnik), writing websites (Purdue Online Writing Lab and Plainlanguage.gov) and PR Daily articles:
1. Accommodate
2. Acquiesce
3. Baccalaureate
4. Bourgeois
5. Calisthenics
6. Camaraderie
7. Carnivorous
8. Collectible
9. Copacetic
10. Desiccate
11. Dietitian
12. Harebrained
13. Handkerchief
14. Indict
15. Inoculate
16. Iridescent
17. Labyrinth
18. Maneuver
19. Memento
20. Millennium
21. Minuscule
22. Occasionally
23. Occurrence
24. Omniscience
25. Ophthalmologist
26. Paraphernalia
27. Perseverance
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