Are you struggling to learn the correct spellings of English words? Or are you on your hunt to find an ultimate list of the hardest English words to spell?
If the answer to any of the above questions is yes, then this blog is for you! Continue reading to learn the correct spellings of the most important English words. 
List of Hardest Words to Spell In English
When spelling words, most languages use the imitate-sounds-into-exact-letters formula. But, with English, the case is a bit different! It is common for words to change their spelling depending on the region in which they are used. Further, you’ll also discover vocabulary words that are overstuffed with silent letters, which confuses the matter of spelling even more.
Here We Go!
1. Abscond
It’s easy to spell this word as “ab-second,” as we often use the word “second”. Abscond is a verb and refers to a person who runs away, taking something along with himself/herself.
2. Abstruse
The spellings of abstruse are too abstruse to remember! “Abstruse” means difficult. Well, spelling this word correctly has remained one of the biggest challenges for writers, students, etc. Abstruse is mistakenly written as “abstrues”. People usually add the word “true” along with a plural suffix -s to the end of this word.
3. Accommodate
Words with double letters are always confusing and tricky to spell. And this word has got two doubles, making it even more confusing. Accommodate’s spellings often follow the pattern of “recommend.” However, both spellings are far different from each other. You might be tempted to replace the first “o” with “a” and remove the “e” at the end because it's silent while pronouncing.
4. Acquiesce
Words like aquarium, aquamarine, etc., don’t have the “c” in between the letters “a” and “b”. This might be the reason why people are tempted to skip the “c” in acquiesce. Further, the awkward combination of consonants and vowels makes spelling more tricky. You might forget the correct sequence of letters. Break it into three sets, (acq), (ui), (esce) to learn it.
5. Chiaroscurist
A painter who plays with light and shade instead of colors for drawing pictures is a chiaroscurist. Just like the name, his work is pretty difficult too. As we often use the words like chair, fair, etc., spelling this word as “(chaire)oscurist” instead of (chiar-os-cu-rist) is common.
6. Apocryphal
This word is pronounced as “app-o-kri-fal” which is why people are tempted to replace the “c” with “k” and “ph” with “f”, hence spelling it out incorrectly as “apokrifal”.
7. Archetypal
The next one on our list is archetypal, meaning “a model of anything.” There’re so many letters in this word that are arranged strangely with each other. Here again, “ch” is pronounced as “k” but when spelling this word out, k shouldn’t be inserted. Further, adding “i” instead of “y” is also common among many people.
8. Ingenious
From genius comes ingenious. Both words refer to brilliance. However, their spellings are different but often confused with each other. Ingenious has all the spellings of genius but with an “o” between “i” and “u.”
9. Sacrilegious
It is often assumed that “sacrilegious” came from the word religious, which is why it is spelled incorrectly as “sacreligious”. However, in reality, this word came from “sacrilege” and the suffix -ous converts it to an adjective, meaning “blasphemous”.
10. Minuscule
You won’t believe that I’ve checked exam sheets where students had written “mynuscule” instead of minuscule. The confusion lies between “minus”, it's an arithmetic symbol. In the case of “minuscule”, it does refer to eliminating something (meaning of the word minus). It’s a simple word that means tiny.
11. Ambiguous
An adjective, ambiguous, is used to define something that is unclear or confusing. It has no “e” in it but just because it is pronounced as “am-be-guas” people often assume that it should be spelled as “ambeegous,” which is incorrect.
12. Mischievous
Have you ever seen or met a naughty child? Well, mischievous is a perfect adjective for such babies. All around the world, different English speakers tend to pronounce this word as “mis-chee-vee-us” which creates confusion in its spelling. Spelling out this word is as difficult as pronouncing it!
13. Handkerchief
From our ancestors to our modern generation, handkerchieves have served us well. It’s hard to pronounce if you don’t crack down on the secret to learning the right spellings. Notice that this word has “hand” and “cheif” in it, not the real one, but of course, the words! Just connect them with the letters “ker” and there you go! You got the right spelling!
14. Gubernatorial
Does it sound like the word “gover” to you? Well, that’s because it actually has a strong linguistic relationship with the governor (word). Both of them have derived from the French language and refer to powerful governors. If you love writing about politics, using gubernatorial in your text can pack more power into it. Gubernatorial can be divided into five sets, such as “gu-ber-na-torial” for memorizing the spellings easily.
15. Cajole
Have you ever tried to convince a friend to go on a trip with you? That’s called cajoling “convincing someone”. It’s a unique word with unique spellings. The “k” sound at the start makes sense why some people spell is “kajol.”
16. Pharaoh
If you’ve watched Caletoprea, then you might know what Pharaoh is. Ancient Egypt rulers are known as Pharaoh. Most students, professionals, and even children are aware of this word, but not everyone knows the right spelling of this word.
17. Logorrhea
A communication disorder that leads to excessive wordiness is called logorrhea. It’s common in the medical world, but you can also use it to show off your vocabulary in essays or blogs. But don’t forget to add “rr” and make sure you end the word with “hea” instead of “hia”.
18. Pochemuchka
We all have (at least once in our lives) met that “how?-what?-why?-when?” person who just keeps on asking questions over questions. The term Pochemuchka is used for such people. Using “Pochemuchka” instead of “talkative” in your text will take your writing to the next level, which is what you probably want!
19. Weird
Weird smell! Weird road! Weird jacket! This word has got the privilege of being pronounced almost every day. It’s easy to utter, but the real challenge is spelling out this word. Skipping the “i” and mistakenly writing “werd” sounds obvious because of the “e” sound.
20. Gobbledegook
Pronouncing this word is hard and spelling out this word is even harder. Gobbledegook refers to a language that is difficult to comprehend and understand because of the overstuffing of irrelevant terms, just like this word. You can divide gobbledegook into smaller chunks i.e., “go-bble-de-gook” to learn the right spellings.
Left with 64 Hardest Words to Spell In English
21. Liquefy
This one looks simple, but when you try to spell it out, you’re probably going to swap the position of “e” with “i” just because the word has a linguistic relation with “liquid.”
22. Wednesday
You might be wondering why we’ve listed this easy word in our list. Well, Wednesday sounds easy just because it's pronounced millions of times in this entire world in just a single day. However, when spelling, most people skip the first “d” because it's silent when pronouncing.
23. Sherbet
A Turkish word, sherbet, is a famous Turkish drink. When borrowed in the English language, people started pronouncing this word as “sherbert” with an extra “r” before “t,” which is why it's often spelled as “sherbert.” It should be remembered that there is only one “r” in this word.
24. Bologna
Bologna, similar to sausages, is loved by most of us. Bologna is an Italian word and a famous meal. It’s difficult, yet an attractive word!
25. Indict
You’ll be surprised to hear that indict is pronounced as “inda-it.” Which justifies why people often skip the letter “c” when spelling out and write it as “indite” which is incorrect.
26. Playwright
“Right” and “wright” are homophones. Meaning that both the words are pronounced the same but are written differently. This justifies why most people use “write” instead of “wright” in the word “playwright.” The word playwright refers to a writer or a dramatist.
27. Fuchsia
Thanks to the German physician Leonhart Fuchs, who gave his name to flower. The same name was further passed to a color. The ch and sh sound (in the middle), and, zh sound (at the end) complicate the spellings. In the case of “fuchsia,” people spell it “fushsia”.
28. Perapharnela
Just because the second r has nothing to with the pronunciation people are skipping it while spelling Perapharnela. As far as its meaning is concerned, it is used for referring to the things that belong to a future-bride, like the word “dowry”.
29. Necessary
The double “s” makes people think there must also be a double “c” in its spelling. “C” is pronounced as “s” which makes the word more difficult to spell.
30. Equivocate
Using ambiguous language to conceal the truth is called “equivocate.” This is also one of the hardest words to spell in English. What makes this word tricky is the strange arrangement of u, I, and, v. The misspelled version of this word is “equvicate” which should be avoided.
31. Truculent
“All the villains are ill-natured, aggressive, and truculent.” Got the meaning from the context? This word refers to aggressive behavior. Speakers know that it should be pronounced as “truck-u-lent” but a few only know that there is no c in the spelling.
32. Inundate
It’s not indundate! By paying attention to the word, you’ll find two different English nouns in it; nun and date. You just have to combine them and add an I letter in the beginning. It’s this easy!
33. Anodyne
Anodyne and pain-reliever are the same things. This word is widely used in the field of medicine. While spelling, most people add an extra “o” after “d” making it “anodoyne.”
34. Vacuum
Vacuum has got a strange arrangement of letters! In some cases, intentionally or unintentionally, people doubles a letter that appears with another pair of double-letter. Just as in this case. “cc” is often accompanied by “uu,” which is undoubtedly against the rules of spelling this word.
35. Mawkish
Almost every group of friends has one over-sentimental person in it. You can replace the word “over-sentimental” with Mawkish because both mean the same. Mawkish sounds like a cool word, but it might ruin all the coolness if you spell it as “mo-kish.” So, be super careful when you’re spelling it out!
36. Maelstrom
Don’t link the “mael” with the word “male.” Maelstrom is defined as a powerful tide. To learn right spellings of this word, you just have to change the position of the letter “e” and “a” in the word “male” to make it “mael” and then add the word storm at the end. That’s it!
37. Maudlin
There’re so many “overemotional” people out there; this is why we’ve devoted another section to this category of words. Maudlin is a synonym for the words mawkish and over-sentimental. The “l” is usually skipped while spelling this word.
38. Committee
Well, two sets of double letters weren't enough to confuse us, so the English language thought of bestowing us with three sets of double letters. People often forget to repeat the letter “t” in this word.
39. Evanescent
It’s easy to spell evanescent as “evenscent” because both words share the same letters. The meaning of this word is short-lived and if you want to stop your writing from falling under the category of “evanescent-texts”, make sure you spell it correctly.
40. Cognizant
Congizant, and congnizant are the common misspelled-versions of this word. This word means “to be aware of something.” This word is hard to spell because remembering the correct sequence of letters can be difficult. And if you happen to be lucky enough to sort the correct position of consonant sounds. Still, there’re chances that you might not get the vowels right. The simple trick to remembering its spelling is to mimic its pronunciation.
Activity!
Learning all these words in one day is nearly impossible! You can pick your favorite words and write them on cards to learn the right spelling. We’d recommend using the capital-SMALL-letter and divide-word-into-small-chunks formulae to remember the correct sequence of letters. You can use “SPELL-ing-S” as a sample word to create your cards.
Left with 44 Hardest Words to Spell In English
41. Spurious
Moving on to the next one… Spurious means “false” and it takes a few minutes to realize that the suffix “-ous” is attached to the word “spur.”
42. Winsome
“Win” plus “some” is winsome! It sounds easy, but people still spell it “winesome.” Win and wine are two different words with almost similar spellings. This creates confusion and makes “winsome” one of the hardest words to spell in English.
43. Phlegmatic
As mentioned earlier, most words with “ph” letters are the hardest to remember. Phlegmatic is used to describe a cool-headed person who shows little or no emotions. Its correct spelling is neither “Flegmatic” and nor “phlagmetic.”
44. Umbrage
Between the four consonants (m,b,r,g), what creates confusion is the fact that there are three vowels arranged in an awkward sequence in “umbrage”. The word “rage” signals the meaning of this particular word, i.e., to get offended or angry.
45. Utilitarian
We’ve got this word from the French language. It is hard to pronounce, hard to spell, and even hard to remember. Utilitarian is an adjective used to define something that is practical or realistic. With so many vowels, it’s a real struggle to remember the correct sequence of letters.
46. Ostracism
Ostracism means banishment from society. The initial letters “ost” makes it hard to realize that this word has “racism” at its end.
47. Etymology
The history of a word, such as from where it came, how it revived, etc., is studied in the field of etymology. The too many “o(s)” in it tempt the people to replace “y” with “o” spelling it incorrectly as “etomology.”
48. Vestige
The letter “v” is rarely seen as the initial letter of any word. This word refers to remnants of something that has died long ago. More stress is given to “tige” which is why only a few people could point out the word “vest” at its beginning.
49. Promulgate
The meanings of “announced” and “promulgated” are somehow the same. The reason why it is spelled as “promeulgate” is that people confuse it with the word “Prome” (a city in Burma). The spelling of this word has one complete word at its end, i.e., the gate.
50. Largesse
People often ignore the last “e,” as it is not pronounced when speaking the word “largesse.” It has got the word “large,” connected with -sse and it simply means generosity.
51. Egregious
The smart people would instantly notice the word “greg” in it. You just have to place it at the center and add “e” at the beginning, plus the suffix -ious at the end. However, it’s not pronounced as “e-greg-i-as” but “uh·gree·juhs”. The pronunciation is the root cause of confusion.
52. Epistolary
Most people think that it should be spelled as “episotlary” because its sounds like episode. You’ll find the word “pistol” hidden in epistolary, which contributes to its pronunciation, i.e., “uh·pi·stuh·leh·ree.” The word pistol just needs to be guarded by two sets of words, that are: “e” (at the beginning) and “ary” (at the end.)
53. Beginning
Remember the famous meme video in which South African president “Jacob Zumba” was struggling to utter the “beginning” word? It's not only hard to pronounce but also difficult to spell. Too many “n(s)” and “i(s)” packed between the “g(s)” complicates the matter of spelling. Use this sequence to memorize the correct spelling: beg-inn-ing.
54. Spelling
While talking about spellings, how can I forget to mention the word “spelling” itself? Spelling is often mistakenly written as “spelliings.” The double L confuses the people and tempts them to add extra (I) to the already-existing (I) in the word.
55. Arrogate
The “e” at the end of this word is often skipped while spelling. Just like “ARROgance” this word is spelled as “arrogate,” and it means “to take over.”
56. Protean
Protein and protean are homophones (words that sound the same but in reality are two different words). Protean means ever-changing, and its spelling should not be confused with the protein’s spelling. If you’re smart enough to remember the correct spelling of protein, you just need to replace the letter “i” with “a” to make it protean.
57. Ascetic
Ascetic’s spellings are often confused with the spellings of “aesthetic.” There is no “e” after the initial letter “a” and “c” should be present after “c,” even if it isn’t pronounced while uttering “ascetic”.
58. Pellucid
Skipping the one “l” is easy while spelling this word. Lucid is a different word, hence, people think it should be a single “l” instead of double in the center of the word pellucid.
59. Heterogeneous
Heterogeneous is stuffed with numerous vowels. It means diverse, and it has no linguistic relationship with the word “hate” so it shouldn’t be confused with that. Further, these small sets can help you learn the spelling of the word easily; het-ero-gene-ous. Spot that “gene” word in it? Now, it will be easy for you to remember its correct spellings.
60. Circumscribe
A word for Math lovers! It’s a verb, meaning drawing geometrical shapes inside a circle. Most people mistakenly add “e” after the world circle, spelling it as circumescribe.
Left with 24 Hardest Words to Spell In English
61. Circumvent
Circumscribe and circumvent both have “circum” in them. You just have to replace “scribe” in circumscribe with “vent” to make it circumvent.
62. Connive
As we pronounce “cone,” frequently, people assume that “connive” is made up of the word cone. However, in reality, it starts with conn.
63. Consign
If you swap the position of g and n in the word “sign”, it becomes “sing.” As sing is easier and more common, people replace the sign of consign with “sing,” ultimately spelling it incorrectly as “consing.”
64. Constituent
This hard-to-spell word is often spelled incorrectly as “consitutent”. The unusual repetition of consonants and vowels drives confusion in people’s mind.
65. Contravene
Notice that contravene has four vowels and all of them are separated by consonant sounds. Where to use the e? How many times to use e? Are the questions that revolve around the minds of people making it difficult for them to spell contravene. The literal meaning of this word is prohibition of law orders.
66. Didactic
Confusing this word with “dictate” is easy. Both have almost similar letters with different arrangements. Didactic is not as common as dictate, this is why it is often assumed that didactic should be spelled as “dicdactic”.
67. Dour
Dour is an adjective that is used to define an unhappy person. The vowel pair “ou” sandwiched between d and r is usually spelled as “uo”. Such mistakes are common as the vowel sounds “u” and “o” sounds a bit similar.
68. Embezzlement
Embezzlement is a challenging word to remember and learning it is no easy task. With already three “e(s)”, adding an extra “e” after z sounds obvious to most people (which is incorrect).
69. Empirical
English is filled with so many words that share identical letters. Empirical and emperor fall in this category. The spelling of these words is intermixed with each other. Such as, empirical is mistakenly written as “emperical”, while borrowing the first half of the word emper-or. Further, the meanings of these words are entirely different from each other, where empirical means logical and emperor means king.
70. Exacerbate
Exacerbate means to make a situation worse. The spelling of this word should be used carefully, as it is one of the hardest words to spell in English language. Use the divide-word-into-chunks formula to learn the accurate spellings, i.e., (exa-cer-bate). Don’t confuse it with the word exercise!
71. Exigent
It takes a while to realize that if we remove “gen” from this word it becomes exit. People are accustomed to adding “e” into most words, which is why some people add an “e” at the end of exigent, and this should be avoided.
72. Extraneous
Extraneous means irrelevant and its spelling can be divided into these sets; extra-ne-ous. Notice that it starts with the word “extra.” And, if you already know how to spell extra, then you already know the half spellings of extraneous.
73. Calumny
Character assassination is the easy definition of calumny. No double letters are used in this word and there is no e before y.
74. Extol
A myriad of the words in English end with “e” but it doesn’t mean that “e” should be added to every word. Extol should not end with an “e”. It’s hard to spell but with attention to details you turn the game over!
75. Fallacious
You might be using the word “false” very often. Now, start using “fallacious” instead of it because will make you sound like a pro-English speaker or writer, which is what you want! However, if you’re using this word in any text, avoid replacing “e” with the letter “a” after double “l”.
76. Garrulous
A talkative person who loves to talk about foolish topics that have no logic is called garrulous. This word has equal number of vowels and consonants. Letters are arranged strangely where one “u” occurs before “l” and the other one after o. With these letter-sets: “garr-ul-ous” you can easily memorize the correct spellings.
77. Gratuitous
Not gratitude, but it's gratuitous! How can two words look this similar without having zero linguistic relation between them? Gratuitous means unjustified whereas gratitude is a quality of being grateful.
78. Hapless
It's natural to relate this word to helpless. Most people think that these words are the same but unfortunately, their spellings and meanings both are different from each other. Hapless means unfortunate and helpless means weak.
79. Hegemony
Hegemony’s spelling becomes incorrect when we add the word money after the set of letters “hege”. It's a royal word used to refer to dominance and leadership. Its meaning has nothing to do with wealth or money.
80. Litigant
The “g” over here receives more focus at first glance than any other letter. With words like “ligitimiate” in mind, its easy to consider this word as “ligitant” instead of “litigant”. Litigent in easy words means opponent.
Left with ONLY 4 Hardest Words to Spell In English
81. Munificent
If you know the words sufficient, efficient and inefficient, you might end this word with “ficient.” Munificent is pretty different from these words and it means extremely generous. Remember the famous movie “maleFICENT”? You simply have to replace “male” with “muni” in the word maleficent to make it munificent.
82. Behavior
Its one of the words that are spelled incorrectly by many people. Reason being, that behavior is written as “behavior” in American English and “behaviour” in British English. People often get confused between these two versions, ultimately forgetting the right spellings of this word and creating a new incorrect version, i.e., behaviouor.
83. Bereft
Bereft’s meaning somehow relates to the word “bare” but its spellings are very different from bare. Bereft means deprived of something. While spelling this word, make sure to avoid adding extra a and i to this word.
84. Capitulate
Notice that this word starts with “cap” and further connects with “it” and finally ends with “u-late”. Capitulate means “surrendering”. It’s a Latin word.
Final Words!
Remember, learning the correct spellings is not an overnight game. It demands hours of practice and days of struggle. So, keep practicing hard if you’re serious about nailing your next written exam or the Spelling Bee competition!
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