What is the most commonly misspelled word in English?

Lists vary, but words like accommodate, definitely, separate, necessary and occurrence appear on almost every list of commonly misspelled words.

How can I remember how to spell necessary?

Necessary has one collar and two sleeves: one C and two Ss.

Does this quiz use British or American spelling?

We only use words that are spelled the same in British and American English, so the answers are correct in both.

Spelling Quiz ✏️

Pick the correct spelling. 10 commonly misspelled words per round, each with a trick to remember it.

Why these words are so hard

English spelling mixes words from Latin, French, Greek and Old English, and pronunciation has changed faster than spelling. The words in this quiz trip people up for a few repeat reasons:

Double letters: accommodate, committee, embarrass, occurrence.

Silent letters: Wednesday, February, government, environment.

Unstressed vowels that all sound like "uh": separate, definitely, cemetery.

IE or EI: receive, believe, weird, foreign.

Memory tricks for the top 15

Word	Trick
accommodate	It's big enough to accommodate two Cs and two Ms.
necessary	One collar (C) and two sleeves (SS).
separate	There's "a rat" in separate.
definitely	It's finite in de-finite-ly.
embarrass	Turning really red with so much shame: two Rs, two Ss.
rhythm	Rhythm Helps Your Two Hips Move.
believe	Never believe a lie.
receive	I before E, except after C: receive.
weird	Weird is weird: it breaks the "I before E" rule.
Wednesday	Say it as "Wed-nes-day" in your head while writing.
government	A government governs: keep the N.
environment	There's iron in environment.
cemetery	Three Es, like people saying "eee" walking past at night.
piece	A piece of pie.
tomorrow	One M, two Rs: "to-mor-row".

How to actually improve your spelling

Keep a personal list. Write down every word you get wrong, here or in your own writing. Most people repeat the same 20–30 mistakes.

Look, cover, write, check. Look at the word, cover it, write it from memory, then check. It's an old classroom method because it works.

Learn word families. If you know sign, the G in signature and design makes sense.

Read more. Seeing a word spelled correctly hundreds of times trains your eye to spot when it looks wrong.

Don't rely only on spell-check. It won't catch real words in the wrong place, like their / there or loose / lose.