Common misspellings

Here’s a quick-reference guide to the top misspellings according to the Oxford English Corpus – an electronic collection of over 2 billion words of real English that helps us to see how people are using the language and also shows us the mistakes that are most often made.

The table gives the correct spelling of the word, handy tips on getting it right, and also the most common misspellings that we’ve found in our research, so you can check to see if any of the same mistakes have been tripping you up.

Correct spelling	Spelling advice	Common misspelling
accommodate, accommodation	two cs, two ms	accomodate, accomodation
achieve	i before e	acheive
across	one c	accross
aggressive, aggression	two gs	agressive, agression
apparently	-ent not -ant	apparantly
appearance	ends with-ance	appearence
argument	no e after the u	arguement
assassination	two double s’s	assasination
basically	ends with-ally	basicly
beginning	double nbefore the-ing	begining
believe	i before e	beleive, belive
bizarre	one z, double -r	bizzare
business	begins with busi-	buisness
calendar	-ar not -er	calender
Caribbean	one r, twobs	Carribean
cemetery	ends with-ery	cemetary
chauffeur	ends with-eur	chauffer
colleague	-ea- in the middle	collegue
coming	one m	comming
committee	double m, double t, double e	commitee
completely	ends with-ely	completly
conscious	-sc- in the middle	concious
curiosity	-os- in the middle	curiousity
definitely	-ite- not –ate-	definately
dilemma	-mm- not -mn-	dilemna
disappear	one s, twops	dissapear
disappoint	one s, twops	dissapoint
ecstasy	ends with–sy	ecstacy
embarrass	two rs, two s’s	embarass
environment	n before the m	enviroment
existence	ends with-ence	existance
Fahrenheit	begins with Fahr-	Farenheit
familiar	ends with-iar	familar
finally	two ls	finaly
fluorescent	begins with fluor-	florescent
foreign	e before i	foriegn
foreseeable	begins with fore-	forseeable
forty	begins with for-	fourty
forward	begins with for-	foward
friend	i before e	freind
further	begins with fur-	futher
gist	begins with g-	jist
glamorous	-mor- in the middle	glamourous
government	n before the m	goverment
guard	begins with gua-	gaurd
happened	ends with-ened	happend
harass, harassment	one r, twos’s	harrass, harrassment
honorary	-nor- in the middle	honourary
humorous	-mor- in the middle	humourous
idiosyncrasy	ends with-asy	idiosyncracy
immediately	ends with-ely	immediatly
incidentally	ends with-ally	incidently
independent	ends with-ent	independant
interrupt	two rs	interupt
irresistible	ends with-ible	irresistable
knowledge	remember the d	knowlege
liaise, liaison	remember the second i:liais-	liase, liason
lollipop	i in the middle	lollypop
millennium, millennia	double l, double n	millenium, millenia
Neanderthal	ends with-thal	Neandertal
necessary	one c, twos’s	neccessary
noticeable	remember the middlee	noticable
occasion	two cs, one s	ocassion, occassion
occurred, occurring	two cs, two rs	occured, occuring
occurrence	two cs, two rs, -ence not -ance	occurance, occurence
pavilion	one l	pavillion
persistent	ends with-ent	persistant
pharaoh	ends with-aoh	pharoah
piece	i before e	peice
politician	ends with-cian	politican
Portuguese	ends with–guese	Portugese
possession	two s’s in the middle and two at the end	posession
preferred, preferring	two rs	prefered, prefering
propaganda	begins withpropa-	propoganda
publicly	ends with–cly	publically
really	two ls	realy
receive	e before i	recieve
referred, referring	two rs	refered, refering
religious	ends with-gious	religous
remember	-mem- in the middle	rember, remeber
resistance	ends with-ance	resistence
sense	ends with-se	sence
separate	-par- in the middle	seperate
siege	i before e	seige
successful	two cs, two s’s	succesful
supersede	ends with-sede	supercede
surprise	begins with sur-	suprise
tattoo	two ts, two os	tatoo
tendency	ends with-ency	tendancy
therefore	ends with-fore	therefor
threshold	one h in the middle	threshhold
tomorrow	one m, two rs	tommorow, tommorrow
tongue	begins with ton-, ends with-gue	tounge
truly	no e	truely
unforeseen	remember the e after the r	unforseen
unfortunately	ends with-ely	unfortunatly
until	one l at the end	untill
weird	e before i	wierd
wherever	one e in the middle	whereever
which	begins with wh-	wich