How well do you spell? Even with spell-check programs, spelling errors remain among the most common glitches for copy editors to mark. A computer cannot distinguish between two correctly spelled words that mean very different things. Nor are you guaranteed that your spell-check program is checking in American English instead of British, or vice versa.

Try this spelling test, which was compiled by one copy editor. (The site also provides tips on spelling.) You'll probably be surprised!

One way to help you avoid spelling errors in the future is to keep a list of errors you have made in the past. Here is a partial list of errors that have found their way into works reviewed by Scriptorium over the years.

Confusion

One source of spelling problems are words that sound similar yet mean vastly different things. Here are some examples that have tripped up Scriptorium members.

bass	n. musical insturment	base	adj. deep
breath	noun	breathe	verb
breech	the back part of something	breach	the breaking of something
canvas	n. coarse material	canvass	v. scout about
council	n. governing group	counsel	v. offer advice
diffuse	v. spread widely	defuse	v. remove the fuse
disinterested	impartial	uninterested	not interested
effect	bring about, cause	affect	influence
elusive	to escape notice	illusive	to deceive
faint	to lose consciousness	feint	to make a slight movement, usually with a weapon
flaunt	to display boldly	flout	to mock or scoff at
horde	n. crowd	hoard	v. to stow away; n. Dragon's treasure
imminent	about to occur	eminent	famous
imminent	about to occur	immanent	inherent
knock	pound on something, like a door	nock	fit an arrow to a bowstring in preparation for firing
martial	a. having to do with the military	marshal	n. officer; v. to arrange in proper order
pealed	v. The bell pealed.	peeled	adj. Keep your eyes peeled.
personal	a. one's own	personnel	n. employees
regal	adj. royal	regale	v. entertain well
subtly	adv. in a subtle manner	subtlety	n. that which is subtle
than	conj. Used exclusively to introduce a second element in a comparison	then	adv. "at that time"; adj. "of that time"; n. "that time"
waist	A person's midsection	waste	trash
wickered	something made out of wicker	whickered	neigh or whinney

Gender

Although rare, some words in English still show gender. One that crops of frequently is blond/blonde:

Another is fiance/fiancee (The first "e" has an acute accent; but that will not convert to ASCII, so the mark is generally left out in plain text forms of an MS.).

Hyphenation

If words normally go together, when they are used as an adjective, they are hyphenated. If they do not normally go together, they are not hyphenated when used as an adjective. There are two groups.

The ones that take the hyphen:

1. e-mail, not email
2. forest-green cloak, not forest green cloak
3. fresh-baked bread, not fresh baked bread
4. good-looking, not goodlooking
5. hard-pressed, not hard pressed
6. high-pitched, not highpitched
7. knee-deep, not knee deep
8. long-term, not longterm
9. red-haired, not redhaired
10. self-explanatory, not self-explanitory
11. wide-eyed, not wide eyed

And the ones that don't:

1. antitheft, not anti-theft
2. armchair, not arm-chair
3. battleaxe, not battle-axe
4. bedridden, not bed-ridden
5. chain mail, not chain-mail
6. coauthor, not co-author (MS Word's main dictionary has it wrong :/.)
7. coexist, not co-exist
8. deeply tanned face, not deeply-tanned face
9. eyelids, not eye-lids
10. firstborn, not first-born
11. goodbye, not good-bye
12. goodbyes, not good-byes
13. grownups, not grown ups or grown-ups
14. handmande, not hand-made
15. highborn, not high-born
16. lifelike, not life-like
17. lifelong, not life-long
18. manmade, not man-made
19. midair, not mid-air
20. midday, not mid-day
21. midwinter, not mid-winter
22. misrepresented, not mis-represented
23. moonlit, not moon-lit
24. multifaceted, not multi-faceted.
25. multilevel, not multi-level
26. multipurpose, not multi-purpose
27. nearby, not near-by
28. nonexistent, not non-existant
29. nonprofit, not non-profit
30. nontraditional, not non-traditional
31. offhand, not off hand or off-hand
32. online, not on-line
33. overchilling, not over-chilling
34. overseeing, not over-seeing
35. painkilling, not pain-killing
36. preeminent, not pre-eminent
37. premade, not pre-made
38. redheaded, not red-headed
39. reemerge, not re-emerge
40. semiautomatic, not semi-automatic
41. shorthanded, not short handed or short-handed
42. sidelong, not side-long
43. standby, not stand-by
44. stepdaughter/stepsister, not step-daughter/step-sister
45. subgroup, not sub-group
46. telltale, not tell-tale
47. tiptoes/tiptoed, not tip-toes/tip-toed
48. treetop, not tree-top
49. tricolor, not tri-color
50. warmups, not warm-ups
51. worldwide, not world-wide
52. zigzagged, not zig-zagged

Idioms

Idioms are ways that specific languages have of expressing certain ideas. For instance, in English you "think about" something, while in German you "think on" something. Here are some pesky idioms that have given Scriptorium members trouble in the past.

1. approval of, not approval at
2. different from, not different than
3. enamored of, not enamored with
4. stare at, not stare in

Preferred Spellings

Sometimes you have a choice of how to form a plural. The preferred form changes over the years, and sometimes you have to do quite a bit of scrambling to keep up with what's current. Here are the current preferences for some words that have cropped up in Scriptorium works.

1. all right ("alright" is considered to be substandard English)
2. among instead of amongst
3. cannot, not can not
4. focused, not focussed (focuses, focusing, unfocused)
5. ID, not i.d. (for "identification")
6. milleniums, not millennia
7. m.p.h. or mph but not mph.
8. mustached, not moustached (obs.)
9. T-shirt, not t-shirt
10. uh-oh, not oh-oh
11. wharves, not wharfs

Split Words

Split words are words that are formed from two words that actually mean something on their own. These words can mean very different things, depending on whether you write them as two separate words or as one word. Here are some examples.

altogether	completely	all together	in a group; in unison
any more	Quantity: I don't want any more.	anymore	Time: I don't want that anymore.
every one	each one	everyone	everybody
in between	prep. "between"	in-between	adj. "intermediate"
lowdown	n. "the inside facts"	low-down	adj. "contemptible, base"
set up	verb: He set up the meeting.	setup	noun: The meeting was a setup.

And then there are the words that are two words yet always written as one:

Odd Spellings

Some spellings are simply strange. There are the ones that are probably best memorized. Here are a couple that tripped up Scriptorium members:

1. absorb, absorber, absorbing, absorbingly, absorbable, absorbency; but absorption and absorptive.
2. city block, but voting bloc
3. opulence, opulent
4. repentance, repentant

The Truth Behind OK (Maybe . . . <g>

OK, O.K. or okay; from an 1839 abbreivation for oll korrect (all correct; yes, it was a joke) most presses prefer the spelled-out version to avoid confusion with OK (Oklahoma) and because the verb form of the staight abbreviations looks strange when conjugated: OK'd, OK'ing, O.K.'d, O.K.'ing. The abbreviations never take lower case.

Misspellings

And here are some plain, old, ordinary misspellings.

1. accommodate, not accomodate
2. accurate, not acurate
3. adjudicating, not adjucating
4. aficionados, not aficianados
5. alleviate, not illeviate
6. appalled, not apalled or apauled
7. appalling, not apalling
8. arrogant, not arogant
9. assumed, not asumed
10. asterisk, not asterix
11. asunder, not assunder
12. banishing, not bannishing
13. benefits, not benifits
14. beseeched, not beseached
15. bigoted, not bigotted
16. caressed, not carressed
17. chapel, not chaple
18. chided, not chidded
19. chiseled, not chisled
20. choking, not choaking
21. clamber, not clambor
22. clambered, not clambored
23. clientele, not cliantale
24. colonnade, not collonade.
25. commission, not comission
26. consistently, not consistantly
27. conspiratorial, not conspirital
28. conspiratorially, not conspiratorily
29. contentedly, not contently
30. conveniently, not conveniately
31. coquettishly, not couquettishly
32. courtesy, not curtosey
33. crept, not krept
34. crevice, not crevesse (not to be confused with crevasse!)
35. crinkled, not krinkled
36. damsel, not damsal
37. debris, not debre
38. defiantly, not defiantely
39. despair, not dispair
40. dais, not dias
41. degradation, not degredation
42. disappointed, not dissappointed
43. discard, not disgard
44. dismantle, not dismantel
45. disparaging, not disparraging
46. dispel, not dispell
47. dissociate, not disassociate
48. dowry, not dowery
49. enmity, not emnity
50. eighteen, not eightteen
51. emanating, not eminating
52. embarrassing/embarrassed, not embarassing/embarassed
53. entwined, not intwined
54. equal, not equil
55. equipped, not equiped
56. erratic, not eratic
57. erupted, not errupted
58. exaggerated, not exagerated
59. exalted, not exhalted
60. explanation, not explination
61. feisty, not fiesty
62. fidgeted, not fidgetted
63. fidgeting, not fidgetting
64. fiery, not firey
65. flexible, not flexable
66. forcibly, not forceably
67. forlorn, not forelorn
68. formidable, not formidible
69. futilely, not futily
70. gallantly, not galantly
71. gilded, not guilded
72. glided, not glidded
73. glowed, not glew
74. hesitancy, not hesitency
75. hierarchy, not heirarchy
76. hostiley, not hostily
77. immemorial, not immemmorial
78. immobilizing, not imobilizing; immobilized
79. immortality, not imortality
80. imperceptibly, not imperceptably
81. inadvertent, not inadvertant
82. inadvertently, not inadvertantly
83. include, not inclued
84. incompetence, not incompetance
85. inheritance, not inheritence
86. inlaid, not inlayed
87. innkeep, not inkeep
88. interfere, not interfer
89. interpreted, not interpretted
90. involuntarily, not unvoluntarily
91. irresistible, not irresistable
92. irresistibly, not irresistably
93. labeled, not labled
94. li'l, not lil'
95. livery, not livary
96. ma'am, not mam
97. mahogany, not mahogony
98. maneuver, not manuever
99. mangy, not mangey
100. marauders, not mauraders
101. meticulously, not maticulously
102. mewling, not muling
103. mischievous, not mischevous
104. misinterpreted, not misinterpretted
105. mislabeled, not mislabled
106. mongooses, not mongeese
107. murmured, not murmurred
108. narrational, not narratorial
109. necessary, not neccisary
110. necessity, not neccesity
111. negative, not negetive
112. noncommittal, not noncommital
113. nonexistent, not nonexistant
114. obeisance, not obiesance (sounds like "ay" as in neighbor and weigh . . .).
115. occurrence, not occurance
116. oscillations, not oscilations
117. overlaid, not overlayed
118. paid, not payed
119. personally, not personnally
120. pervading, not prevading
121. pizzazz, not pizazz
122. plummeted, not plumetted
123. possessing, not posessing
124. precipitate, not percipitate
125. precipitous, not percipitous
126. precocious, not percocious
127. preferred, not prefered
128. prevailed, not prevaled
129. quorum, not quorem
130. reasonably, not reasonablely
131. rebelled, not rebeled
132. recognizable, not recognizeable
133. recommend, not reccommend
134. referring, not refering
135. reinforce, not reenforce
136. resplendent, not resplendant
137. rudely, not rudly
138. scenario, not scenerio
139. seized, not siezed
140. seneschal, not seneshal
141. separate, not seperate; separation, not seperation (HINT: There's "a rat" in separate.)
142. servant, not servent
143. shaky, not shacky
144. shining, not shinning
145. similar, not similiar
146. slunk, not slank
147. smoky, not smokey
148. stiletto, not stilletto
149. stilettos, not stilettoes
150. subtlety, not subtlty
151. suddenness, not suddeness
152. sumptuous, not sumptious
153. suppressed, not surpressed
154. tousled, not touseled
155. transferred, not transfered
156. tyranny, not tyrrany
157. unceremoniously, not uncerimonious
158. unceremoniously, not uncerimoniously
159. vicinity, not vacinity
160. visibly, not visably
161. wagoner, not wagoneer
162. war cry, not warcry.
163. whipping, not whiping
164. whuffing, not whuffling
165. wineglass, not wine glass
166. wiry, not wirey
167. wistfully, not whistfully

Return to the Dragonlord of Dumnonia Home Page