Misspelling [Categories: English language] Misspelling refers to spelling a word incorrectly.

Misspelling is distinguished from other errors in writing, such as grammatical errors, incorrect capitalization or misuse of punctuation. A misspelled word can be a series of letters that represents no correctly spelt word at all (such as "liek" for "like") or a correct spelling of another word (such as writing "here" when one means "hear", or "now" when one means "know"). Misspellings of the latter type can easily make their way into printed material, because they cannot be caught by computerized spellcheckers. Words for which people commonly write one for the other are: plural of is (I am, he/she is, you are, we are, they are) our: belonging to us barley: the grain used to make beer (rhymes with "Harley") barely: hardly (rhymes with "rarely") breath: the noun (rhymes with "death") breathe: the verb (rhymes with "seethe") collage: something made from a variety of magazine cut-outs mounted on paper (rhymes with "garage") college: university (rhymes with "knowledge") corpse: dead body (rhymes with "warps") corps: army or similar organization (rhymes with "four"); also the plural of "corp" when it's short for "corporation" coup: act of overthrowing a government (rhymes with "too") coupe: vehicle (rhymes with "group" in Quick Facts about: U.S. English Quick Summary not found for this subjectU.S. English, pronounced "koop-ay" elsewhere - the word is in fact French, and has an accented 'e' - coup) everyday: routine, commonplace; often used instead of:

every day: daily, once per day loose: opposite of tight (rhymes with "goose") lose: opposite of win, gain or find (rhymes with "choose") now: at the present time (rhymes with "how") know: be familiar with the facts; be acquainted with; be aware (rhymes with "go") of: belonging to or somehow connected with; associated with; forming a part of; a certain amount of (rhymes with "love") off: opposite of on (rhymes with "cough") 've: This is the word "have" as part of a contraction. This sounds like "of" after some words like "could" and "might", but is actually a contraction for "have" (could have, might have). You write: should've, might've, would've, etc. physics: the laws that govern objects moving in space; related to physical, physiology, physicist, physician (the first syllable sounds like "fizz") psychic: having ESP; pertaining to the soul; related to psychology, psychiatrist, psyche, psycho, psychedelic, psychopath, psyched (psychic scars) (the first syllable sounds like "sigh") quite: rather, to an impressive degree (rhymes with "night") quiet: not very loud (rhymes with "riot") through: from one end to the other; finished (rhymes with "too") thorough: complete, exhaustive (rhymes with "burro") were: past tense of the verb to be (I was, you were) (rhymes with "fur") where: at what place? (rhymes with "share") wear: have clothes on; break something down eventually through use (wear out, wear thin, wear and tear) (rhymes with "share") which: what one; that (He kicked against my leg, which bothered me) -- a question word like what, when, where or why, it should begin with WH (homophonous with "witch" in some dialects, but in others it begins with a /hw/ sound, as do "whale", "where", "white", "wheat" and "Juan")

witch: a female Quick Facts about: sorcerer One who practices magic or sorcerysorcerer (always pronounced with a simple /w/ sound at the beginning) List of notable misspellings, including some that stuck Quick Facts about: Zenith The point above the observer that is directly opposite the nadir on the imaginary sphere against which celestial bodies appear to be projectedZenith - Arabic zamt misspelled by scribes Camel-and-needle-eye proverb: translators from Hebrew into Greek confused cable for camel Quick Facts about: Cocoa Powder of ground roasted cocao beans with most of the fat removedCocoa from Quick Facts about: cacao Tropical American tree producing cacao beanscacao (misspelling also influenced by Quick Facts about: coco Tall palm tree bearing coconuts as fruits; widely planted throughout the tropicscoco). Many foreign languages and foreigners speaking English still use "cacao". Hoodlum - first appeared as a pseudonym in a newspaper article, whose editor had misread "Noodlum" (the author's reversal of this wrongdoer's real surname, Muldoon) Quick Facts about: Google Quick Summary not found for this subjectGoogle - intentional misspelling of Quick Facts about: googol A cardinal number represented as 1 followed by 100 zeros (ten raised to the power of a hundred)googol. Potatoe - misspelling of "potato" mistakenly prepared for a classroom spelling bee hosted by Quick Facts about: Dan Quayle Quick Summary not found for this subjectDan Quayle Quick Facts about: Odelay Quick Summary not found for this subjectOdelay - Quick Facts about: Beck A beckoning gestureBeck dictated the title he had chosen to the person writing down the name of his next album, originally to be titled rale (Spanish for "tell me")