What's your favourite difficult spelling?

[specialsmasher]

I'm preparing a fiendish test for my A level group & could do with a few more crackers.

My favourite difficult spelling is languorous

Excited about possible contributions...

inoculation is a tricky one.

ooh - it is that! Thank you.

...and supersede

Lefttenant!

(or luietenant or whatever the sod it is!)

Not really a difficult spelling phonetically but I was in a small production of The Phantom Tollbooth (by Norton Juster) when I was 11, and I had to spell antidisestablishmentarianism in under 4 seconds :o

And often people do not know the difference between reign and rein.

Then there's practise/practice and definite.
And embarrass, accommodation and recommend.

That old perennial - desiccate - though I expect dessicate is now probably quite acceptable due to common usage.

Same goes for all right/ alright, though I am too old to accept the latter.

Minuscule
Diarrhoea

Thanks so much!

I LOVED The Phantom Tollbooth when I was a child - I gave a copy to my friend who called her son Milo. Must get another copy for myself...

I bet you my A level group don't know what desiccate means - one or two of the girls, perhaps. I do get surprised sometimes by what is not known these days!

Keep 'em coming!

liaison

gauge

sacrilege

mischievous

haemmorhage

manoeuvre

diarrhoea

accommodation

I was going to suggest minuscule. So simple, often so incorrect.

Throw in discreet/discrete too with the meanings. Get 'em while they're young.

And definitely things like definite/separate.

And loose/lose.

Oh darn, I was going for minuscule too. Taught my DD to spell it, but her English teacher circled the first 'u' when she tried it out.

Supersede.

misogyny

I am quite keen on Nietzsche too but that might be hard to justify including.

i like them old skool
yacht
february etc

And now I see that supersede has been taken too.

hullabaloo

Onomatopoeia :)

anaesthetic
diphthong
privilege

somersault

Apostrophes. Just throw them with apostrophes. Actually, ask them to spell apostrophe.

I saw a sign outside the Health Centre.

"Quit Smoking Group - on Tuesday's and Thursday's"

I was so distressed I immediately ran to the nearest tobacconist and bought myself a pipe, some tobaccy, a cigar and 200 Marlboro.

Ooh - tobacconist is good. Not because it's hard to spell, but because it's a word a lot of 18 yos might not have come across, not in common use any more, is it?

And teenagers? Get them to spell gonorrhoea. And chlamydia.

naive and naivete (which is how I was taught to spell it, 'scuse lack of accents :dinosaur: ) or naivety
misspell
words that end in -ence that are often misspelled -ance
stationery and stationary
hymn
rhythm
rhyme
liaise/liaison

apols for any dafts fuck ups in this post - I am currently under-caffeinated and over tired

caffeine

The misuse of the words every and day is an everyday occurrence...

oooh, occurrence!

myrrh
phlegm

Ooh - so many good ones - I'm indebted to you all!

Thanks so much! I'm quite excited about my test / quiz now!