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Commonly Misspelled and Confused Words

English words evolved from a variety of other languages. Worse, how we pronounce words has continued to change, so phonetic spelling is problematic. Yes, once we really did pronounce the k and g sounds in knight. The following is a list of words commonly misspelled or confused with other words.

[A] [B] [C] [D] [E] [F] [G] [H] [I] [J] [K] [L] [M]
[N] [O] [P] [Q] [R] [S] [T] [U] [V] [W] [X] [Y] [Z]

A –

absence
accept
accomplish
accommodation
accumulate
accurate
achievement
acquaintance
across
advertisement
advice
advise
affect
aggravate
agitator
a lot
answer
appropriate
archaeology
argument
article
athlete
attendance
auxiliary
available

B –

beautiful
beginning
behavior
beneficial
breath
breathe
business

C –

calendar
carcass
ceiling
certainly
chameleon
chief
choice
choose
chose
commercial
committee
competition
concentrate
congratulate
conscience
conscientious
conscious
consequently
convenience
counselor
criticism
criticize

D –

definitely
desperate
describe
develop
different
difference
disappoint
disease
doesn’t
during

E –

effect
eighth
embarrass
encyclopedia
entrance
envelope
environment
especially
exaggerate
except
existence
expedient
experience
experiment
explanation
extremely

F –

familiar
fascinate
February
foreign

G –

genealogy
genius
government
grammar
guarantee
guild
guillotine

H –

harass
height

I –

idiosyncrasy
immediate
important
independence
integration
intellectual
interest
interesting
interfere
interrupt
irrelevant

J –

jewelry
judgment

K –

knowledge

L –

laboratory
leisure
license
liquorice
loneliness
loose
lose

M –

maintenance
marriage
mathematics
medieval
mischief
mischievous
misspell

N –

necessary
niece
ninety
ninth

O –

occasion
occurrence
opinion
opportunity
original
optimist

P –

particular
pastime
perform
perhaps
phony
physical
possess
prefer
prejudiced
prevalent
privilege
probably
pronunciation
psychology
pursue

Q –

quiet
quite

R –

realize
recommend
restaurant
rhythm
ridiculous

S –

scenery
schedule
secretary
separate
similar
since
sincerely
speech
stationary
stationery
straight
strength
surprise

T –

temperature
through
thorough
tomorrow

U –

unnecessary
unusually

V –

W –

Wednesday
weird

X –

Y –

Z –