Are you ready for a tough spelling bee?
Here are twenty-five words that sometimes give people grief.
- address
- all right
- asphyxiate
- camouflage
- carburettor (Americans may spell it with only one “t.”)
- chrysanthemum
- commitment
- committee
- desiccated
- diphtheria
- embarrass
- exhilarate
- gorilla
- grammar
- harass
- hemorrhage
- inoculate
- intercede
- liquefy
- ophthalmologist
- penicillin
- seize
- siege
- supersede
- vaccinate
Why not have a look at these words and then have someone give you a spelling test? How do you think you’ll do?
If you don’t get 100%, don’t worry. You won’t be alone.
Are you sweating blood yet?
Anneli's Place 
Loved this. All is good with me, except, you had me at liquefy (no ‘I’) 🙂
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I was surprised by that one too!
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You may both be pleased to know that liquefy and liquify are both valid.
Great post, embarrass was a stumper for me as a kid.
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Aha! I wonder if liquefy is a British spelling?
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Nice, try, Debby, but no. Many words do have different spellings in British or American style, but not this one. Sorry.
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Lol Anneli. 🙂
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Dictionary dot com and Miriam Webster say both are acceptable – although, Webster notes that liquify is less common.
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That’s really interesting. So maybe we both weren’t so far off in our spellings in the past.
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Lol, amazing! 🙂
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I just did a search for both and found out the opposite, but I’ll keep looking. The internet doesn’t know everything. You may be right. I’ll check the dictionaries. Webster’s has “liquefy” but “liquidate.” I think I’ve been spelling it liquify for years, but now I’m on shaky ground. Seems to be a “fluid” situation right now.
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I think you’ve cottoned onto what’s happened. Not enough people are comfortable admitting this — but a spelling mistake widespread enough becomes a correct spelling. Same as a widespread misdefinition, literally. Language is inherently fluid after all.
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You’re so right, Mark. The thing is, we don’t have to like it. I’m not totally rigid about change, but sometimes the changes are so numerous and so sloppy that I fear losing our beautiful (complicated) language. Texting is one of the worst things creeping in2 our language.
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Your spelling and grammar skills are amazing, Anneli. I was absent the day they taught spelling. Over time, tools like ProWritingAid have helped me realize my errant ways. Still, such tools are not perfect.
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I came across two misspelled words on one page of the latest e-book that I’m reading. “Unincumbered” and “hinderance.” I cringed.
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I got about half of them. The rest, Word would have to catch!
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Word would catch a lot, but it also changed my friend Maggie’s name to magpie, so you have to be careful of that too. 😉
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Hehee!
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Yeah. Poor Maggie. But I always fix it before I send.
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Yeah, I definitely would’ve gotten many of those wrong.
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Make a list! 😉
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I’ll just have my editor catch those. 😏
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Hey! What a great idea!
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