To avoid making common English spelling errors, check out this list of some of the most commonly misspelled words in the English language.
One of the best ways to show that you are knowledgeable in your writing is with proper spelling. While today’s writers have a number of spell and grammar checking tools, you still need to write at times when you don’t have that help.
To avoid making common English spelling errors, check out this list of some of the most commonly misspelled words in the English language.
We tested dozens of grammar checkers, and Grammarly is the best tool on the market today. It'll help you write and edit your work much faster. Grammarly provides a powerful AI writing assistant and plagiarism checker. Anyone who works with the written word should use it.
Contents
- 1. Correct: Accommodate
- 2. Correct: Acquaintance
- 3. Correct: Acquire
- 4. Correct: A lot
- 5. Correct: Awful
- 6. Correct: Business
- 7. Correct: Camouflage
- 8. Correct: Caribbean
- 9. Correct: Cemetery
- 10. Correct: Colleague
- 11. Correct: Category
- 12. Correct: Coolly
- 13. Correct: Definite
- 14. Correct: Difference
- 15. Correct: Disastrous
- 16. Correct: Dumbbell
- 17. Correct: Exhilarate
- 18. Correct: Fluorescent
- 19. Correct: Humorous
- 20. Correct: Imitate
- 21.Correct: Judgment
- 22. Correct: Liaison
- 23. Correct: Marshmallow
- 24. Correct: Medieval
- 25. Correct: Misspell
- 26. Correct: Occasion
- 27. Correct: Pastime
- 28. Correct: Personnel
- 29. Correct: Queue
- 30. Correct: Receipt
- 31. Correct: Repetition
- 32. Correct: Sergeant
- 33. Correct: Tomorrow
- 34. Correct: Vacuum
- Author
1. Correct: Accommodate

Incorrect: Acommodate, Acomodate, Accomodate
The Oxford English Corpus indicates that this verb, which means to provide space for, is one of the most commonly misspelled words in the English language. It requires two “c’s” and two “m’s.”
2. Correct: Acquaintance
Incorrect: Acquaintence, aquaintance
If you know something only slightly, you have an acquaintance. Forgetting the “c” and changing the last “a” to an “e” are common misspellings of this word.
3. Correct: Acquire
Incorrect: Aquire, adquire
This verb which means to take possession of or to receive something, throws people off because of the “c.” The correct spelling requires the “c.”
4. Correct: A lot
Incorrect: Alot, allot
A lot is another of the spelling rules commonly broken. It is two words. It means many of something.
5. Correct: Awful
Incorrect: Awfull, aweful
It is awful how many English writers can’t get the correct spelling of this word. It does not have an “e,” even though it sounds like the word “awe.” It also only requires one “l” at the end.
6. Correct: Business
Incorrect: Buisness
This word gets mixed up with busyness, which is why some people try to spell it incorrectly as buisness. The correct English spelling is business.
7. Correct: Camouflage
Incorrect: Camoflage, camoflague
Many people find that the “u” hiding in the word camouflage makes it hard to spell. Some people leave it off altogether, and others stick it at the end of the word, but both are incorrect.
8. Correct: Caribbean
Incorrect: Carribean
Before you jump on your next cruise, make sure you know where you’re going. If the tropics are calling your name, you’re likely going to the Caribbean, not the carribean. This word requires two “b’s” and not two “r’s” to properly spell.
9. Correct: Cemetery
Incorrect: Cemetary, cematery
The e and a conundrum strikes again with this common misspelling. When planning a haunted house, you’ll want to build a cemetery, with all “e’s.”
10. Correct: Colleague
Incorrect: Collaegue, collegue
Your coworkers are colleagues, not collaegues or collegues. This one is tricky, but if you can remember how to spell league, you can remember colleague more easily. Simply stick “col” on the front of the word, and you’re ready to properly spell the word that means your friends at work.
11. Correct: Category
Incorrect: Catagory
This word is misspelled often because of how it is said. It sounds like it should be spelled catagory, but the correct spelling is category.
12. Correct: Coolly
Incorrect: Cooly
Many adverbs end in the suffix -ly. When you need to add that to a word that already ends in “l,” it can get confusing. In the case of coolly and many similar words, you keep the original “l” and add the suffix, giving you a double consonant.
13. Correct: Definite
Incorrect: Definate, definit
To remember this one, consider the word “finite.” Adding the prefix “de” to it gives you definite. This makes sense, because a definite answer is the final answer.
The adverb form of this word, definitely, is also commonly misspelled. Definately is an incorrect spelling. Defiantly is a correct spelling of a completely different word meaning “in a way that defies.”
14. Correct: Difference
Incorrect: Diffrence
This is yet another word in the English language that is commonly misspelled because of the way it is said. Many people do not pronounce the “er” syllable in this world. Thus, when they go to spell it, they leave out the “e.”
15. Correct: Disastrous
Incorrect: Disasterous
Disastrous is an adjective that means something with catastrophic consequences. It often is referred to after an actual disaster. This is why people mistakenly spell the word disasterous.
16. Correct: Dumbbell
Incorrect: Dumbell
Dumbbell is a compound word made by combining “dumb” and “bell.” As such, it requires two “b’s.” Spelling it with just one is incorrect.
17. Correct: Exhilarate
Incorrect: Exilerate
This is yet another English word that falls victim to the way it is spoken by English speakers verses spelled. Exilerate is a misspelling, but it looks phonetically correct based on the way many dialects pronounce the world Exhilarate is the correct spelling, however.
18. Correct: Fluorescent
Incorrect: Flourescent
Very few words in the English language are spelled with an “uo” in them. Most people expect to see the “o” first in the “or” sound, such as in fluorescent. However, the true spelling is with a “u” first.
19. Correct: Humorous
Incorrect: HumerousThis is yet another word that is misspelled because of the way it’s pronounced. However, the root word is “humor,” so the adjective retains the “or” spelling.
20. Correct: Imitate
Incorrect: Immitate
This word doesn’t require a double “m,” which is a common spelling error. There’s no good memory trick for this one, so it’s one you’re just going to have to learn.
21.Correct: Judgment
Incorrect: Judgement
This is rarely a problem in British English, but many American English writers like to stick an “e” in the middle of judgment. This is due to its root in the word “judge.” However, adding the -ment suffix means the silent “e” gets dropped.
22. Correct: Liaison
Incorrect: Liason
Many common misspellings stem from words that originated in another language, like liaison, which was originally a French word. While liason may be phonetically correct in English, it is not the correct spelling.
23. Correct: Marshmallow
Incorrect: Marshmellow
Marshmallows are definitely a sweet treat, but they are not sweet to try to spell. The word “mellow” is not in the word at all, but because it sounds like it is, the spelling with the “e” pops up frequently.
24. Correct: Medieval
Incorrect: Mideval, midevil, medeval, medevil
This word is one of the hardest because it sounds like “mid” and “evil” put together, but neither of those words are in the word.
25. Correct: Misspell
Incorrect: Mispell, misspel
This is another word with tricky double letters, and it’s pretty ironic that it ended up on the list of spelling errors. Adding the prefix mis- to the word spell requires a double “s.” You also retain the double “l” from the original word.
26. Correct: Occasion
Incorrect: Occassion
Here the double letters trip people up again. This word has a double “c” but not a double “s.”
27. Correct: Pastime
Incorrect: Passtime, pasttime
This one gets spelled incorrectly because it sounds like it’s a compound word, but it is not. Therefore, it doesn’t have a double “s” or “t.”
28. Correct: Personnel
Incorrect: Personell, personel
If you’re adding people to your hiring list, you add “personnel” with a double “n.”
29. Correct: Queue
Incorrect: Que, Qeue
Queue has a tricky spelling because of all of the vowels, but it is in fact spelled with two “ue” combinations back-to-back.
30. Correct: Receipt
Incorrect: Reciept
Remembering the rule “I before E except after C” will help you remember how to spell receipt. Since the “ei” comes after the “c,” it is spelled with the “e” first.
31. Correct: Repetition
Incorrect: Repitition
If you can think of the word “repeat,” which has an “e” in the middle, you can easily remember how to spell repetition, which also has an “e” in the middle.
32. Correct: Sergeant
Incorrect: Sargent
Sargent is how most people say the word, but sergeant is the correct spelling.
33. Correct: Tomorrow
Incorrect: Tommorrow, Tommorow
The double “r” in this word, which means the day after today, throws many writers off. The correct spelling is with two “r’s” and just one “m.”
34. Correct: Vacuum
Incorrect: Vaccuum, vaccum, vacume
Vacuum has a strange double vowel in the middle, and this tricks some writers into thinking that it also has a double “c.”
Spelling errors will trip up even the best writers, but it’s always a good idea to keep them straight as often as you can. Like with grammar mistakes, Study up on this list of common English spelling errors, and start applying the correct spellings to your written communication. Using good spellchecker software can help too.
We tested dozens of grammar checkers, and Grammarly is the best tool on the market today. It'll help you write and edit your work much faster. Grammarly provides a powerful AI writing assistant and plagiarism checker. Anyone who works with the written word should use it.
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