The 30 most misspelled words in the English language

Spelling seems like such a minor thing—don't we all have the spell-check feature on our devices? However, it can become a serious issue, especially in the professional world. For example, careless spelling in an email creates a bad impression. This is especially true if it's the first time you have contacted someone, but it can be forgiven. In a formal document, however, spelling and grammar mistakes are just not tolerated. Failing to proofread and correct mistakes shows a lack of attention to detail.

So, which are the most commonly misspelled words in the English language? Click on to find out. 

Absence

Common misspellings: absense, abcense, abcence. "Absence" has two "s" sounds. The first is spelled with "s," and the second with "c."

Acquire

Common misspelling: aquire. People often forget to include the "c" when spelling "aqcuire." 

Colleague

Common misspellings: collaegue, collegue, coleague. Just think about the word "league" when you spell "colleague." And remember, it's with two "l's."

Conscientious

Common misspelling: consciencious. Even though it comes from the word conscience, this one has a "t" and not a "c" near the end.

Consensus

Common misspelling: concensus. The second "s" sound of this word is actually spelled with a "c."

Entrepreneur

Common misspellings: entrepeneur, entreprenur, entreperneur. Consistently listed as one of the most commonly misspelled words, it's understandable as its French spelling doesn't fit standard English rules.

Laid off

Common misspelling: layed off. The past tense is "laid." Plus, there's no such word as "layed."

License

Common misspellings: licence, lisence. People often switch the "s" and "c" around, or replace one with the other. In American English, it's always "license." But in British English, it's "licence" when it's a noun, and "license" when it’s a verb.

Occasion

Common misspelling: occassion. Let's take this occasion to say that there's only one "s" in this word.

Experience

Common misspelling: experiance. The problem with this word is that the "ance" and "ence" endings both usually mean the same thing and can sound similar. 

Pastime

Common misspelling: pasttime. Unlike some other compound words that end and beginning with the same letter, such as underrate, this word just has one "t."

Publicly

Common misspelling: publically. For words ending in "ic," you should add "ally" at the end. However, "public" is the only major exception to this rule.

Recommend

Common misspellings: recomend, reccommend. Many people think there are two sets of double letters in this word, or none at all. However, it simply combines "commend" with the prefix "re."

Relevant

Common misspellings: relevent, revelant. Many people put an "e" in instead of the "a," or they exchange the "v" and the "l."

Successful

Common misspellings: succesful, successfull, sucessful. It's the combos of repeated consonants that can make this spelling unsuccessful. Just remember that it has the doubles in the middle, but only one consonant at the beginning and at the end.  

Until

Common misspelling: untill. Even though most people know the word "till" is a word and "til" isn't, many forget that there's only one "i" in until.