Accuracy Project

This is a compilation of some of the most frequently misspelled, commonly confused and easily misused words around. Some are just words that are highly susceptible to misspelling. Others are homonyms that look or sound similar to one another, but have different meanings.

In an era of email, instant messaging, pagers, and cell phone text messaging, correct spelling and grammar, proper capitalization and use of complete sentences has become a thing of the past. The increasing use of Internet and IM acronyms makes it increasingly important for us to recognize the proper use and spelling of many of the most commonly mangled and misused words.

Far too many people blindly accept correction from spell checker software while failing to recognize that they must differentiate between the similar words. With homonyms, since both examples are valid words, your spell checker will not pick up the mistake.

Always keep the following in mind:

I before E
Except after C
Or when it sounds like "A" as in neighbor and weigh
Or when it sounds like "I" as in Einstein

There are many exceptions, but it's still a valuable rule to memorize.

A few of the more difficult "ie" and "ei" words:

Agencies, ancient, believe, conscience, deficiencies, efficient, efficiencies, field, friend, policies, priest, science, shield, siege, sufficient, yield.

Being, caffeine, ceiling, conceited, conceive, deceit, Eileen, Einstein, einsteinium, either, foreign, foreigner, forfeit, forfeiture, heifer, height, heir, leisure, neighbor, neither, perceive, protein, receive, receipt, seize, seizure, sheikh, sleigh, sleight, stein, their, transceiver, vein, weigh, weight, weir, weird, weirdo, zeitgeist.

A - absence, abundance, accelerate, accessible, accidentally, acclaim, accommodate, accomplish, accordion, accumulate, achievement, acquaintance, acquire, acquit, across, address, advertisement, aficionado, aggravate, alleged, amateur, annual, anoint, apology, apparent, appearance, argument, atheist, athletics, attendance, auxiliary, axle.

B - balloon, barbecue, barbiturate, bargain, basically, beggar, beginning, believable, believe, biscuit, bouillon, boundary, Britain, broccoli, Buddha, business.

C - calendar, camouflage, cantaloupe, carburetor, Caribbean, cartilage, category, cemetery, chagrined, challenge, characteristic, changing, chauvinism, chief, chili, chocolaty, cigarette, climbed, coliseum, collectible, colonel, colossal, column, congratulations, coming, commemorate, committee, commitment, comparative, competent, completely, concede, conceive, condemn, condescend, conscientious, conscious, consciousness, consensus, consistent, continuous, controlled, coolly, corollary, convenient, correlate, correspondence, counselor, courteous, courtesy, criticize.

D - daiquiri, Dalmatian, deceive, defendant, deferred, definite, dependent, descend, desiccate, description, desirable, despair, desperate, deterrence, develop, development, difference, dilemma, dining, diorama, disappear, disappearance, disappoint, disastrous, discipline, disease, dispensable, dissatisfied, dissipate, dominant, drunkenness, dumbbell.

E - easily, ecstasy, efficiency, eighth, either, eligible, embarrass, emperor, enemy, entirely, equipped, equivalent, especially, exaggerate, exceed, excellence, excellent, exercise, exhaust, exhilarate, existence, expense, experience, experiment, explanation, extremely, exuberance.

F - Fahrenheit, fallacious, fallacy, familiar, fascinate, feasible, fictitious, fiery, finally, financially, flabbergast, fluorescent, forcibly, foreign, forfeit, formerly, foresee, forty, fourth, fulfill, fundamentally.

G - gauge, generally, genius, government, governor, grammar, grievous, guarantee, guerrilla, guidance, guttural.

H - handkerchief, happily, harass, height, heinous, hemorrhage, heroes, hesitancy, hindrance, hoarse, hoping, horrific, humorous, hypocrisy, hypocrite.

I - ideally, idiosyncrasy, ignorance, imaginary, imitate, immediately, implement, incidentally, incredible, independence, independent, inadvertent, incredible, independent, indicted, indispensable, inevitable, influential, information, ingenious, inoculate, insurance, intelligence, intercede, interference, interrupt, introduce, irascible, irrelevant, irresistible, island.

J - jealousy, judgment, judicial, judiciary, judicious.

K - kaleidoscope, knowledge.

L - laboratory, legitimate, leisure, length, lenient, liaison, license, lieutenant, lightning, likelihood, likely, liquefy, longitude, loneliness, losing, lovely, luxury.

M - magazine, maintain, maintenance, manageable, maneuver, marriage, marshmallow, mathematics, medicine, medieval, memento, millennium, millionaire, miniature, minuscule, minutes, mischief, mischievous, misogyny, missile, misspell, misspelled, mortgage, mosquito, mosquitoes, murmur, muscle, mysterious.

N - narrative, naturally, nauseous, necessary, necessity, neighbor, neutron, ninety, ninth, noticeable, nowadays, nuisance.

O - obedience, obstacle, occasion, occasionally, occurred, occurrence, octopus, official, omission, omit, omitted, onomatopoeia, opinion, opponent, opportunity, oppression, optimism, ordinarily, origin, outrageous, overrun.

P - panicky, parallel, parliament, particularly, pastime, pavilion, peaceable, peculiar, penetrate, peninsula, perceive, performance, permanent, permissible, permitted, perseverance, persistence, pharaoh, physical, physician, picnicking, piece, pigeon, pilgrimage, pistachio, pitiful, plagiarize, planning, pleasant, poinsettia, portray, possess, possessive, potato, potatoes, practically, prairie, precede, preference, preferred, prejudice, preparation, prescription, presumptuous, prevalent, primitive, privilege, probably, procedure, proceed, professor, prominent, pronounce, pronunciation, propaganda, propagate, psychology, publicly, pursue.

Q - quandary, quarantine, questionnaire, quizzes.

R - raspberry, realistically, realize, really, recede, receipt, receive, recognize, recommend, reference, referred, refrigerator, relevant, relieving, religious, remembrance, reminiscence, renowned, repetition, representative, resemblance, reservoir, resistance, restaurant, rheumatism, rhythm, rhythmical, ridiculous, roommate.

S - sacrilegious, sacrifice, safety, salary, satellite, savvy, scary, scenery, schedule, secede, secretary, seize, sensible, sentence, separate, septuagenarian, sergeant, several, shepherd, sheriff, shining, shish kebab, siege, similar, simile, simply, sincerely, skiing, soliloquy, sophomore, sorcerer, souvenir, specifically, specimen, spinach, sponsor, spontaneous, statistics, stopped, strategy, strength, strenuous, stubbornness, subordinate, subpoena, subtle, succeed, success, succession, sufficient, supersede, suppress, surprise, surround, susceptible, suspicious, syllable, symmetrical, synonymous.

T - tangible, technical, technique, temperature, tendency, themselves, theories, therefore, thorough, though, threshold, through, till, tomorrow, tournament, tourniquet, transferred, truly, twelfth, tyranny.

U - ukulele, unanimous, undoubtedly, unnecessary, until, usage, usually.

V - vacuum, valuable, vengeance, vicious, vigilant, village, villain, violence, visible.

W - warrant, Wednesday, weird, wherever, wholly.

Y - yacht, yarmulke, yield.

Z - Zaire, zealous, zoology, zucchini.

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