Spelling

[pegkerr]

I can never remember how to spell the words "silhouette" and "hors d'oeuvres" and always have to look them up.

Which words do you always have to look up?

Edited to add: Here's a list of the 100 most misspelled words in English, with some tips on remembering the correct spelling.

Comments

[madlori.livejournal.com]

Oh, everyone has those words they can never remember how to spell.

My worst one is "rhythm." In fact I'm not sure that's how you spell it.

I also get tripped up on "accommodate." Two c's, two m's. I also have trouble with "martyr," but that's because I went to Bryn Mawr where we refer to ourselves as "Mawrters" (and yes, the irony is intentional), so I seem to have forgotten the real spelling of the word.

But you know how they say that if you ever were in competitive spelling bees, you never forget the word you went out on? Well, it's true. In the Regional Finals, Round 17, I was eliminated on the word "pronounceable." I missed that "e" in the middle, which everyone does.

For that reason, I always want to put an "e" into the middle of "believable" and make it "believeable" which is wrong. Le sigh.

Of course now I have a job in which I am regularly required to type words like "octamethoxyresorcinarene," which flow out without a problem, so perhaps remembering "accommodate" doesn't seem so urgent.

[dancingwriter.livejournal.com]

"But you know how they say that if you ever were in competitive spelling bees, you never forget the word you went out on?"

How it all comes back: New York State Spelling Bee--the finals, at the NY State Fair in Syracuse. Nearly the last round--only thirteen of us left. I went out on "unctuous." I was in eighth grade, which was a looong time ago--but you are so right, I have never forgotten that word! (I spelled it the way it sounds: unctious. Aaargh!)