RD.COM Knowledge
Meghan JonesUpdated: Jan. 30, 2023
The English language is full of words that seem overstuffed with unnecessary letters, feel like they should be spelled a different way, or just don't make sense. Here are some of our favorites, explained.
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#20: Nauseous
There sure are a lot of vowels in “nauseous,” and it can be tricky to remember what order they go in. Even if you’ve got them straight, you may still second-guess yourself about the consonants, too. The “sh” sound makes it sound like there should be a “c” in there somewhere, like in “conscious.” And, as if the spelling confusion weren’t enough, you’ve probably beenusingthe word “nauseous” wrong too, but that’s a whole ‘nother story.
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#19: Dilate
With only six letters, “dilate” really shouldn’t be one of the hard words to spell, but the way people usually pronounce it can throw spellers for a loop. Many people say “dilate” as three full syllables, “di-a-late,” leading themselves and others to add in an extra “a” while spelling it. But let’s put this easy misunderstanding to rest—there’s no such word as “dialate.” Find out some more words even smart people mispronounce.
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#18: Indict
With “indict” popping up as a buzzword in today’s political climate, for better or worse, many people find themselves doing a double-take when they see it written out. Though the word is pronounced “indite,” it has a “c” in it! The legal term, whose first use dates back to around 1620, is a Latin variation on an earlier word thatwasspelled “indite.” To make things even more confusing, “indite” is actually still a word; it means to write or compose. Here are some words that people say aren’t real words—but they are.
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#17: Liquefy
In a vacuum, this wouldn’t be that tricky a word. It’s only seven letters, and is more or less spelled like it sounds. But the last three letters totally, understandably, throw spellers off. “Pacify,” “clarify,” “specify,” “rectify”…virtually every other word that follows this spelling pattern uses the “-ify” suffix. Even fictionalized versions of the word, like “green-ify” (shout-out to fans of Wicked), are spelled with an “i.” But “liquefy,” meaning to make or become liquid, ends with “-efy.” To make matters even more confusing, “liquid” itself is spelled “-qui,” reallymaking you think that second vowel should be an “i.” But nope—the fact that “liquefy” is spelled with an “e” makes it one of our hardest words to spell. (“Stupefy,” “putrefy,” and “rarefy” also use this unusual spelling.) Next, find out what TL;DR means.
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#16: Wednesday
Native English spellers have gotten used to the spelling of “Wednesday,” but that doesn’t mean it isn’t still very, very strange when you think about it. What is that first “d” doing there?! Well, many English names for weekdays come from the names of old Germanic deities. Wednesday was named after the Norse god Woden, better known, at least to comic book fans, as Odin. (We have his hammer-wielding son Thor to thank for Thursday!) “Wednesday” comes from the Old English “Wōdnesdæg,” or “Woden’s Day.” Check out these funny words you probably haven’t heard before.
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#15: Sherbet
Time to settle this sweet dispute once and for all—there is no such word as “sherbert.” Many people, understandably but inaccurately, assume that “sherbet” (or “sherbert,” as it’s often pronounced) is just an Americanization of “sorbet.” And while the words both come from the Turkish word “şerbet,” sherbet and sorbet are actually two different desserts. The difference between the two is worth a whole article on its own, but the bottom line is that there’s only one “r” in “sherbet,” no matter how people pronounce it. The primary pronunciation is “sher-bit,” but so many people throughout different regions of the United States pronounce it “sher-bert” that Dictionary.com lists it as an alternate pronunciation. Butspellingit that way is incorrect.
Psst! Do you know why the letter “w” is pronounced “double-u” and not “double-v”?
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#14: Bologna
There’s a reason many meat packages spell it “baloney.” The word “bologna” derives from Bologna, Italy, since a similar (but fancier) type of sausage comes from that city. If you want to mimic this fanciness, that “-gn” at the end should be pronounced with a “yuh” sound. But the Americanized, more phonetic spelling seems to better suit thin slabs of Oscar Mayer. All of these hardest words to spell are nothing compared to these insanely tough words that won the National Spelling Bee.
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#13: Playwright
Here’s another one that’s not thathardto spell but is just plain counterintuitive. Youwrite a play, so why aren’t people whowriteplays called playwrites? (Or “playwriters”?) It’s because when the word was coined, in the late 1600s, people who produced plays were considered workers who wrought plays rather than wrote them. (So grandiose, 17th century.) And if youwroughtsomething, you were considered a wright. The fact that “wright” is a homophone for “write” is just a salt-in-the-wound coincidence. Did you know that playwright is one of the most misspelled words in Arizona? Here are some awesome old-fashioned words we don’t use anymore—but should!
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#12: Fuchsia
Both the pairs of letters “sc” and “sh” have been known to make the sound that starts the second syllable of “fuchsia.” But, unfortunately for anyone who likes writing about colors or plants, “fuchsia” uses neither of those pairings, instead taking all the necessary letters and jumbling them up. The plant, whose flowers give the name to the color, was named after esteemed German botanist Leonhard Fuchs.
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#11: Minuscule
Nope, it’s not “mini-scule,” no matter how much logic would suggest. It bears no linguistic relation to “mini” or “miniature” but actually comes from the Latinminus, meaning “less.”Luckily, there’s a trick to help you remember how to spell “minuscule”—and these other 15 commonly misspelled words.
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#10: Ingenious
Like “minuscule,” “ingenious” is another word that’s so similar to another in both sound and meaning that people conclude that they’re spelled the same way. “Ingenious” means very clever and intelligent. A “genius” is a very clever, intelligent person. But, alas, the final syllables of “ingenious” are not spelled like “genius.” It dates back to a Latin word, ingeniosus,meaning “natural disposition.” Just like spelling “ingenious” and these other hardest words to spell correctly, using these words will make you sound smart.
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#9: Sacrilegious
A “sacrilegious” act is disrespectful to something of religious significance,so it makes a lot of sense to just assume without a second thought that the word is spelled “sacreligious.” But that would be too easy, now, wouldn’t it? “Sacrilegious” comes from “sacrilege,” not from “religious,” and the fact that they sound so similar is a pure linguistic coincidence. The word “sacrilege” came to be from the Latinsacri-, or “sacred,” andlegere, meaning “to gather or steal.” See if you know how to spell the most commonly misspelled words in every U.S. state.
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#8: Accommodate
Words with double letters are already going to be confusing; knowing which letters you double in words like “necessary,” “embarrassing,” and “millennium” is no small feat. “Accommodate” in particular can be tricky to remember since it follows a different rule from “recommend,” another word where the c’s and m’s can be sources of confusion. While “recommend” only has one “c,” “accommodate” has two of both consonants. Not to mention, “accommodate”‘s second “o” doesn’t really make an “o” sound; you could certainly see an “a” or an “e” going in that spot, no problem. Check out these palindrome words you’ve never thought of.
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#7: Orangutan
These poor Bornean primates are the subject of much linguistic confusion. According to Merriam-Webster, their name is the amalgamation of two words in the Malay pidgin language: “orang” for “man” and “hutan” for “forest.” But many people prefer pronouncing an anglicized version that adds another “g” to the end, making the word perplexing for spellers. As if that weren’t confusing enough, some variations on the spelling hyphenate the word and/or add an “o” before the “u,” creating “orang-outan.”
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#6: Mischievous
Have you heard this word pronounced “mis-CHEE-vee-ous,” a whole bunch? Maybe you yourself even pronounce it this way. This technically incorrect pronunciation—it’s actually “MIS-chi-vous”—leads people to spell the word wrong, thinking that there’s an “i” after the “v.” And, in a vicious spelling cycle, it’s likely because of the “ie,” which so often makes that “ee” sound, that people pronounce the word with that extra syllable, which then leads them to spell it with the extra “i”…et cetera. But make no mistake, the only “i” in “mischievous” is after the “h,” just like in “mischief.” Because of this confusion, it’s one of our hardest words to spell. Here are some more of the hardest words to pronounce in English.
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#5: Gubernatorial
Seriously…what?! The word “governor” has no “u,” “b,” or “t” in it. So wheredid we get this wacky, hard-to-spell word to mean “of or relating to a governor”? As it turns out, “gubernatorial” is actually much closer than “governor” to the origin of the word. Both words come from the Latin gubernātōr; “governor” just went through a bit more evolution, becoming the Old French gouverneur. Learn about the most confusing rules in the grammar world.
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#4: Acquiesce
This is simply a word where if you know it, you know it. Looking quickly at this word, which means “comply or agree without question,” you might not think that that first “c” needs to be there; it isn’t in words like “aquatic” or “aquiver.” You may also be tempted to throw a double “s” on the end in lieu of the “sc,” or just write the “s” with no “c.”
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#3: Conscientious
“Conscious” and “conscience” are tricky enough to spell. Take the first eight letters of “conscience,” pronounce them differently, and add another “sh” sound created by different letters, and you’ve got a doozy of a word for “moral and principled.” For a real test of your spelling skills, see if you can pass this quiz of 4th-grade spelling words.
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#2: Paraphernalia
Instead of adding a letter like in the case of “orangutan,” people pronouncing this already-tricky word tend to skip over the second “r” altogether. This mouthful actually comes from a nearly identical Latin word,paraphernālia, which referred to the belongings or property of a bride-to-be, similar to a dowry. Needless to say, this word has modernized, as now it can describe everything from ski gear to musical amplifiers to cell phone chargers.
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#1: Onomatopoeia
Like a punchy use of onomatopoeia—a technique where a word mimics a sound—in a comic book, this one speaks for itself. Between the eight vowels, the fact that you only really need half the letters that are there to make the “-pia” sound that the word ends with, or the fact that replacing the “t” with an “n,” and saying “onomanopoeia,” rolls off the tongue slightly better, this tops our list of English’s hardest words to spell.Next, ease your word-cluttered mind with these simple spelling rules to remember commonly misspelled words.
Sources:
- Merriam Webster: Orangutan
- Dictionary.com: Sacrilege
- Dictionary.com: Ingenious
- Britannica: Leonhard Fuchs
Originally Published: October 20, 2020
Meghan Jones
Meghan Jones is a word nerd who has been writing for RD.com since 2017. You can find her byline on pieces about grammar, fun facts, the meanings of various head-scratching words and phrases, and more. Meghan graduated from Marist College with a Bachelor of Arts in English in 2017; her creative nonfiction piece “Anticipation” was published in the Spring 2017 issue of Angles literary magazine.
FAQs
What is the #1 hardest word to spell? ›
#1: Onomatopoeia
Next, ease your word-cluttered mind with these simple spelling rules to remember commonly misspelled words.
#1: Minuscule
It carries no relation to “mini” or “miniature” but is actually derived from the Latin word minus, meaning “less.”
- Colonel.
- Worcestershire.
- Mischievous.
- Draught.
- Quinoa.
- Onomatopoeia.
- Scissors.
- Anemone.
- assesment > assessment.
- akward > awkward.
- endevour > endeavour.
- belive > believe.
- wierd > weird.
- achive > achieve.
- greatful > grateful.
- biogrophay > biography.
correct spelling | notes | misspelling |
---|---|---|
achieve | i before e | acheive |
across | one c | accross |
aggressive | -gg- | agressive |
apparently | -ent- | apparantly |
- Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (45 letters) ...
- Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia (36 letters) ...
- Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (34 letters) ...
- Pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism (30 letters) ...
- Floccinaucinihilipilification (29 letters)
- Literally. If you know a language purist, watch out. ...
- Ironic. ...
- Irregardless (instead of regardless) ...
- Whom. ...
- Colonel. ...
- Nonplussed. ...
- Disinterested. ...
- Enormity.
- 1 Apparent.
- 2 Believe.
- 3 Entrepreneur.
- 4 License.
- 5 Privilege.
- 6 Pronunciation.
- 7 Separate.
- 8 Tendency.
1. Sesquipedalian. This word means 'long-winded' words, such as Sesquipedalian. It is a rarely used word that simply means long.
What are the 20 longest words in English? ›- Aequeosalinocalcalinoceraceoaluminosocupreovitriolic. ...
- Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. ...
- Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia. ...
- Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. ...
- Pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism. ...
- Floccinaucinihilipilification.
What are 20 vocabulary words? ›
- Archaic (adjective) Definition: very old or old fashioned. ...
- Zephyr (noun) Definition: a brief gusty wind. ...
- Quiescent (adjective) Definition: peacefulness, dormant, inactive. ...
- Plethora (noun) Definition: excess, a large amount. ...
- Degust (verb) ...
- Poignant (adjective) ...
- Abate (verb) ...
- Sycophant (noun)
- Abnegation -Renouncing a belief or doctrine.
- Aggrandize-enhance power, wealth or status.
- Alacrity -eagerness.
- Anachronistic -misplaced chronologically.
- Archetypal -quintessential of a certain kind.
- Ascetic -one who practices self-denial as part of spiritual discipline.
able, aftermath, afternoon, appear, attack, attend, bicycle, breakfast, brightly, cabbage, cable, carpenter, channel, circle, climb, comfort, comical, confirm, construct, curtain, customer, damage, decide, delight, disappear, discover, empty, encourage, entertain, equal, exactly, forever, fruit, fuel, group, guard, ...
What are 3 commonly misspelled words? ›Other “ance” and “ence” words that are commonly misspelled: guidance (not guidence) occurrence (not occurrance. perseverance (not perseverence)
How do you spell the word 100? ›100 in words is written as One hundred or simply Hundred. The name of the number 100 in English is “Hundred”.
What are the 30 difficult words? ›- Tractable.
- Placate.
- Miser.
- Engender.
- Dogma.
- Homogeneous.
- Laconic.
- Quiescence.
- Anachronism. An anachronism is something (or someone) that is out of place in terms of time or chronology. ...
- Accismus. A form of irony in which someone feigns indifference to something he or she desires. ...
- Cacophony. ...
- Draconian. ...
- Limerence. ...
- Pareidolia. ...
- Riposte. ...
- Sanctimony.
- 10 new English words for 2021. Read Time. ...
- Adulting. Definition: The action of becoming or acting like an adult. ...
- Awe walk. Definition: Taking a walk outside and making an effort to look at the things around you. ...
- Contactless. Definition: not having to physically touch or interact with people. ...
- Doomscrolling. ...
- PPE. ...
- Quarenteen. ...
- Thirsty.
What number is fifty in words? The number 50 is fifty in words.
What word is always spelled incorrectly? ›Correct Spelling | Common Misspelling |
---|---|
accommodate | accomodate |
bizarre | bizzare |
calendar | calender |
Caribbean | Carribean |
What is the longest F word? ›
floccinaucinihilipilification (29).
What is the 189 819 letter word? ›1. methionylthreonylthreonylglutaminylalanyl…isoleucine. You'll notice there's an ellipsis here, and that's because this word, in total, is 189,819 letters long, and it's the chemical name for the largest known protein, titin.
What is a 190000 letter word? ›The longest English word is also the longest word in the world, with almost 190,000 letters. It is the chemical name for titin, the largest protein known. The longest word in the English dictionary however, is the 45-letter word "pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis", which refers to a lung disease.
What is the weirdest 5 letter word? ›- ADIEU. Adieu means the same as goodbye. ...
- TARES. Any of various vetch plants, such as Vicia hirsuta (hairy tare) of Eurasia and North Africa.
- SOARE. ...
- DUCAT. ...
- OUIJA. ...
- CAROM. ...
- ERGOT. ...
- CRAIC.
- Lose vs. Loose. ...
- Anyway vs. Any way. ...
- Than vs. Then. ...
- That vs. Which. ...
- Their vs. There vs. ...
- To vs. Too vs. ...
- Who vs. Whom. ...
- Your vs. You're. Your is a pronoun that is second person possessive.
The number 300 in words is written as Three hundred.
What is the most random English word? ›The most random word in English is aardvark. Of course, there's really no way to answer this question because its entirely based on opinion. That being said, feel free to contact us if you think you know a more random word than aardvark.
How do you spell 30 in words? ›30 in words is written as “Thirty”. Number 30 is used to express a value or a count of objects. It comes at the 30th number in a set of natural numbers. The spelling or name of 30 in English is given by Thirty.
What is the longest 45 letter word? ›1 Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (forty-five letters): A lung disease caused by the inhalation of silica or quartz dust.
What is a 5 letter word with Z? ›- abuzz.
- adoze.
- adzed.
- adzes.
- agaze.
- amaze.
- azans.
- azide.
What one word has all 26 different letters in it? ›
An English pangram is a sentence that contains all 26 letters of the English alphabet. The most well known English pangram is probably “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”.
What are big words to spell? ›- Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. ...
- Floccinaucinihilipilification. ...
- Incomprehensibility. ...
- Trichotillomania. ...
- Xenotransplantation. ...
- Tergiversation. ...
- Uncopyrightable. ...
- Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia.
The longest word in the English language, pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, won primary school speller Jemimah Elise Sampson, the East Coast Radio's Last Kid Standing title, as seen in the video below published by the East Coast Radio.
Is there a 32 letter word? ›Another known long word is konstantynopolitańczykowianeczka (32 letters), "a daughter of a man who lives in Constantinople" and pięćdziesięciogroszówka (23 letters), "a 50 groszy coin".
What starts with P and ends with E? ›Q: What starts with "P", ends with "E", and has millions of letters? A: The "Post Office"!
What are the top 100 English words? ›- Acquiesce.
- Acronym.
- Ambiguity.
- Analogy.
- Anachronism.
- Andragogy.
- Antithesis.
- Antonym.
- Amount.
- Argument.
- Art.
- Be.
- Beautiful.
- Belief.
- Cause.
- Certain.
New Words to Use | Meanings |
---|---|
Acquiesce | accept something reluctantly but without protest |
Align | place or arrange things in a straight line |
Amend | make minor changes in a text in order to make it fairer |
Annihilate | destroy utterly |
...
40 in words.
40 in words | Forty |
---|---|
Forty in Numbers | 40 |
SYNONYMS 1. multifarious, multitudinous, myriad; divers, sundry, various. many, innumerable, manifold, numerous imply the presence or succession of a large number of units. many is a popular and common word for this idea: many times.
What are 20 words start a? ›
- acetylcholinesterase.
- adrenocorticosteroid.
- abdominohysterectomy.
- antiestablishmentism.
- abetalipoproteinemia.
- adrenocorticotrophic.
- adrenocorticotrophin.
- allantoidoangiopagus.
- Nauseous.
- Dilate.
- Fuchsia.
- Minuscule.
- Ingenious.
- Sacrilegious.
- Orangutan.
- Paraphernalia.
- Literally. If you know a language purist, watch out. ...
- Ironic. Here is a word that has confused almost all English speakers – native or otherwise. ...
- Irregardless (instead of regardless) ...
- Whom. ...
- Colonel. ...
- Nonplussed. ...
- Disinterested. ...
- Enormity.
- Rural. ...
- Sixth. ...
- Sesquipedalian. ...
- Phenomenon. ...
- Onomatopoeia. ...
- Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. ...
- Worcestershire.
- Aequeosalinocalcalinoceraceoaluminosocupreovitriolic. ...
- Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. ...
- Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia. ...
- Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. ...
- Pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism. ...
- Floccinaucinihilipilification.
- Parastratiosphecomyia Stratioshecomyioides. ...
- Pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism. ...
- Floccinaucinihilipilification. ...
- Subdermatoglyphic. ...
- Squirrelled. ...
- Transtendinous. ...
- Tattarrattat. ...
- and 12. Euouae and Psst.
1 Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (forty-five letters): A lung disease caused by the inhalation of silica or quartz dust.
What are the 12 most powerful words? ›What are the twelve powerful words? Trace, Analyze, Infer, Evaluate, Formulate, Describe, Support, Explain, Summarize, Compare, Contrast, Predict. Why use the twelve powerful words?