MECHANICS

Spelling

Sp: spelling.

The list below includes 202 of the words that people most often misspell. The Keables Guide includes it for two reasons: to spare you the trouble of consulting a dictionary, and to allow students with spelling problems to review frequently misspelled words. If the word your teacher marked is not on the list below, look it up.

Here is a suggestion to improve your spelling. You already know how to spell most of the words below, but you probably do not know the spelling of all of them. Read the list, copy the words of which you are uncertain, make your own personal checklist, and make flash cards to drill yourself on the spelling.

absence

accidentally

academic

accommodate

acknowledgment

acquire

across

address

aging

aggressive

all right

always

amateur

analysis

analyze

apology

arctic

argument

athlete

athletics

attach

attendance

basically

beginning

believe

benefited

Britain

bureaucracy

business

calendar

candidate

cannot

cemetery

changeable

changing

commitment

committed

conceive

condescend

conscience

conscientious

conscious

consistent

coolly

curiosity

decision

definitely

descendant

describe

description

despair

desperate

devastate

develop

dilemma

disappear

disappoint

disastrous

doesn’t

each other

ecstasy

eighth

eligible

embarrass

eminent

entrance

environment

exaggerate

exercise

existence

explanation

familiar

fascinate

fiend

fluorescent

foreign

foresee

forty

fourth

friend

frustrated

fulfill

gauge

genius

government

grammar

guerrilla

harass

hindrance

humorous

hypocrisy

idiosyncrasy

immediately

incidentally

indispensable

infinite

ingenious

intelligence

interest

irrelevant

irresistible

jealousy

judgment

laboratory

laid

license

lightning

loneliness

magnificent

maintenance

maneuver

marriage

mathematics

medieval

memento

millennium

minuscule

mischievous

modern

narrator

neighbor

necessary

niece

no one

non-existent

noticeable

obstinate

occasion

occurred

occurrence

omission

opposite

original

parallel

pastime

perceive

perseverance

persuade

phenomena (plural)

phenomenon (singular)

pigeon

possess

possession

precede

prejudice

privilege

probably

proceed

professor

publicly

pursue

questionnaire

receive

recommend

reference

referred

regard

relief

relevant

religion

reminiscence

repetition

restaurant

rhythm

roommate

sacrifice

sacrilegious

schedule

secretary

seize

self-conscious

separate

sergeant

several

significant

similar

simile

soliloquy

sophomore

subtly

succeed

success

surprise

temperature

thorough

threshold

tomorrow

tragedy

transferred

truly

undoubtedly

unnecessarily

until

usage

vacuum

vengeance

villain

warrant

weird

whether

withhold

writing