Commonly Misspelled Words

The most commonly misspelled words are...well, very common! Rather than making the same mistakes over and over again, or kicking yourself for frequently misspelling the same words, why not conquer these challenging words?

Skim my long list here to find the words which are most difficult for you. Then use some of these practice tips to really learn the correct spellings. (More tips appear at the bottom of this list as well.) Through consistent practice, you can improve your spelling!

Additional words can be found on this list of 102 frequently misspelled words. 

300 Commonly Misspelled Words

Get a printable list of all 300 words.

Tips for Learning Commonly Misspelled Words

1. Make a list of your most frequently misspelled words. Focus on only the worst three or four words at the beginning. Be sure you know the correct meaning of these words and the correct ways to use them in sentences.

2. Keep these words in a notebook and refer to them often. Look at them. Write them. Type them. Text them. Say them aloud. Spend at least 15 minutes a week reviewing these troublesome words. 

3. Use these words in written work throughout the week. For instance, when you're asked to write spelling sentences or English essays, purposely compose sentences that contain your most challenging words. Or, text them in a humorous message to a friend. Practice, practice, practice.

4. When your mastery of these first three or four words improves, add three more words from our list to your notebook and repeat the steps above. Bit by bit, you WILL improve your spelling!

Additional Helpful Spelling Word Lists

102 Most Frequently Misspelled Words - If you study just one word list on our site, it should be this one. It contains words we use often. They're words you'll want to get right every time! This list is helpful for ESL students, adults and kids in grades 6 and up. If you ever have trouble with words like accidentally, accommodate, definitely, embarrass, familiar, lightning, millionaire, niece, preferred, receive, rhythm, or separate, truly, or vacuum, then this list is for you!

Hard Spelling Words - This list includes words in which it's sometimes hard to remember if the consonants are doubled when suffixes are added. Print out the word list to use with the Step by Step free spelling lesson that explains this skill.

Spelling Demons - Sometimes the words that trip us up are those that are easily-confused with other words, like desert/dessert, lose/loose, and allusion/illusion. Master this list to improve your spelling skills.

Is the bear bare?

Homophone Sets - One of the best ways to improve spelling skills is by choosing the correct homophone. I've compiled 50 sets in all, complete with definitions, parts of speech and meaningful sentences to help end the confusion between sets of words such as allowed/aloud, capital/capitol, stationary/stationery and many more!

Fun Spelling Practice

Try some of these fun spelling puzzles for even more spelling practice!

Spelling Bee Challenge - In this unique fill-in crossword, you'll need to place 32 difficult spelling bee words. How many of these words can you spell and/or define?

EX Marks the Spot: All the answers in this crossword begin with EX. Fun vocabulary practice for upper grades!  If you solve this quickly, you should be EXceedingly happy. Others should EXTOL your talent and EXcellent abilities!

Opposites Unscramble 16 words, then match each on up to an opposite that's also in the list. Fun two-part activity for extra vocab practice!

Ann Richmond Fisher is a longtime published educational writer, a former classroom teacher and a former homeschool teacher. Ann's spelling bee resources, graded spelling word lists, spelling games, worksheets, and other language arts resources have become respected around the globe since she launched Spelling-Words-Well in 2010.

Ann is also the creator of www.word-game-world.com.

Visit my YouTube Channel for fun spelling practice videos!

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