17 Words That Even Really Smart People Misspell
Linguist Gretchen McCulloch recently asked her well-educated Twitter followers to reveal the words they routinely misspell. Below are several of their responses, along with Lifehacker’s tips for how to remember their proper spellings:
- rhythm: It’s an rh and th, each followed by one letter.
- judgment: No emotion in this judgment.
- bureaucracy: For beautiful I think of a cartoon character going “You are bee-eee-aaa-youuutiful!” In your head, pronounce the eau in bureaucrat the same way. Think of a beautiful bureaucrat.
- bourgeoisie: (adj. bourgeois) They drink bourbon around the world (geo), and…you’re on your own for isie.
- fuchsia: You would think the s goes first. But fuchsia funks you up.
- hierarchy: You’re higher (i-er) in the hierarchy.
- vacuum: See dirt once, scoop it twice.
- millennial: They want two of everything!
- business: It’s busy-ness. Or, you take the bus to a business.
- privilege: I don’t have a leg to stand on.
- nauseous: Picture a nautical seasick mouse.
- Nietzsche: You learn about him at zee school.
- Fibonacci: Math educator H. P. Read has a great trick: “The b, n, and c’s follow the start of the Fibonacci sequence 1, 1, 2.”
- dependence: It’s all e’s.
- resistance: Say it like you’re French.
- maintenance: The main room has 10 ants.
- harassment: One r and two ss’s, like “your a**.”
