# What words are spelled wrong, in your opinion? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 24, 2017, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-are-spelled-wrong-in-your-opinion/780660 "2017-02-24T19:44:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![cuauhtemoc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecb155/32.png) [@cuauhtemoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cuauhtemoc)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2017, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-are-spelled-wrong-in-your-opinion/780660/21 "2017-02-24T23:30:00Z")
“Chile” should denote the long, thin country in South America and NOTHING ELSE. “Chili” should refer to all peppers so designated (which also tend to be long and thin, come to think of it) as well as the thick, hot, bean-containing soup. Also, the red and green sauces they love so much in New Mexico. In fact, nothing you can put in your mouth should be spelled “chile”. I insist on this. Unless, maybe, it comes from Chile. And then only under certain circumstances. Like, if you came up with a recipe for Chilean chili (maybe it’s made with sea bass and flavored with Malbec) you could call it “Chili alla Chile” or something. Otherwise, no. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2017, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-are-spelled-wrong-in-your-opinion/780660/22 "2017-02-24T23:37:18Z")
There should not be a word like “awry”. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2017, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-are-spelled-wrong-in-your-opinion/780660/23 "2017-02-24T23:56:55Z")
“Hyperbole” is an intentional trap and that is not an excessive exaggeration. I didn’t match up the spoken and written forms mentally until I was in my 30’s. Unfortunately, I don’t think there is a good way to spell it so that it makes sense intuitively in English. ---
**Author:** ![Hampshire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hampshire/32/4887_2.png) [@Hampshire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hampshire)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-are-spelled-wrong-in-your-opinion/780660/24 "2017-02-25T00:12:24Z")
It really needs to be changed to Wendsday. ---
**Author:** ![Totenfeier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@Totenfeier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Totenfeier)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-are-spelled-wrong-in-your-opinion/780660/25 "2017-02-25T00:25:40Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > It really needs to be changed to Wendsday. AW, come on - Woden’s got to be grumpy enough that it’s mostly only prisoners that worship him nowadays; don’t take his day away! ---
**Author:** ![Flughund4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f17d59/32.png) [@Flughund4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flughund4)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-are-spelled-wrong-in-your-opinion/780660/26 "2017-02-25T00:56:18Z")
Maybe we should consider [this](http://www.davidpbrown.co.uk/jokes/european-commission.html). 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-are-spelled-wrong-in-your-opinion/780660/27 "2017-02-25T00:58:37Z")
One little thing: “rhyme” is so spelled because of a false analogy with “rhythm”: it really ought to be spelled “rime” (as it is in the title of Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”). ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-are-spelled-wrong-in-your-opinion/780660/28 "2017-02-25T01:17:59Z")
Ingenious should be Ingenius. That “o” really bugs me. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-are-spelled-wrong-in-your-opinion/780660/29 "2017-02-25T01:26:52Z")
**Delores Reborn** , that poem is fabulous. I tried to say it aloud, but got about halfway through before I couldn’t do any more. I’d love to hear Stephen Colbert or Stephen Fry try it, though. I’d like to be able to use _segway_ instead of _segue_, _sotter_ instead of _solder_, and my personal favorite, _prolly_ instead of _probably_. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-are-spelled-wrong-in-your-opinion/780660/30 "2017-02-25T02:11:35Z")
For some reason my first thought was why the w in wrong? It looks better talking about rong and right. ---
**Author:** ![Totenfeier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@Totenfeier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Totenfeier)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-are-spelled-wrong-in-your-opinion/780660/31 "2017-02-25T02:14:27Z")
> [@Flughund4](#): > > Maybe we should consider [this](http://www.davidpbrown.co.uk/jokes/european-commission.html). 😉 This is a little frightening: the further I read into it, the more I was using a loud Hitler voice in my head to do it! :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-are-spelled-wrong-in-your-opinion/780660/32 "2017-02-25T05:55:22Z")
All those silent gh’s in words that have ght: eight, fight, light, might, night, right, taught, thought, etc. Drop all the gh’s and spell them phonetically: eiht, fite, lite, mite, nite, rite, taht, thoht, etc. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-are-spelled-wrong-in-your-opinion/780660/33 "2017-02-25T07:00:49Z")
Comftorble. Even dictionaries give ‘comfortable’ as a second alternative pronunciation. ---
**Author:** ![Flughund4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f17d59/32.png) [@Flughund4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flughund4)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-are-spelled-wrong-in-your-opinion/780660/34 "2017-02-25T08:46:46Z")
> [@Totenfeier](#): > > This is a little frightening: the further I read into it, the more I was using a loud Hitler voice in my head to do it! :eek: Aww, with a username like that, how can you be a Germanophobe? 😛 Zer iz nozink to be afrad ov. 😉 I must admit, the German language comes closer to matching spelling with pronunciation than English. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-are-spelled-wrong-in-your-opinion/780660/35 "2017-02-25T10:10:42Z")
‘Spelled’ Should be ‘spelt’ (it actually is spelt ‘spelt’, where I come from) ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-are-spelled-wrong-in-your-opinion/780660/36 "2017-02-25T11:35:40Z")
> [@Flughund4](#): > > I must admit, the German language comes closer to matching spelling with pronunciation than English. Aside from F and V being interchangeable, German is one of the most perfectly phonetic languages in the world. I don’t think there is a single homophone in the German language, but maybe somebody here knows one. Even if a language were perfectly phonetic, it would soon drift out of synch, because language constantly evolved through subtle shifts by the speakers in how they say things. Chaucer spelled his English words very close to the way they were pronounced then. It’s the later speakers who dropped the terminal E and stopped pronouncing the GH, making the language less phonetic. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-are-spelled-wrong-in-your-opinion/780660/37 "2017-02-25T12:13:19Z")
Phonetic. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-are-spelled-wrong-in-your-opinion/780660/38 "2017-02-25T15:26:59Z")
Epitomee or epitomie, cuz epitome is just a big book. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-are-spelled-wrong-in-your-opinion/780660/39 "2017-02-25T15:42:24Z")
> [@Karen\_Lingel](#): > > I wish label and table were consistent. I don’t care which way, JUST PICK ONE!!! They should be labl and tabl. This would highlight the fact that they use a vocalic l and have no e sound at all. Lots of others with l and r (theatr, centr, etc.). The real problem is that different dialects do different things. Fr exampl, I pronounce the middl n in envirnment. The classic science fiction story: Meihem In Ce Klasrum illustrates some of the problems and pitfalls. (To explain the cird word of the titl, ce letter c was first dropd entirly, replaced by s or k as rekuird, and cen broot bak to represent th.) ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [February 25, 2017, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-are-spelled-wrong-in-your-opinion/780660/40 "2017-02-25T17:17:03Z")
Liquefy, liquefied-- oh, wait, they are spelled that way! Awesome! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-are-spelled-wrong-in-your-opinion/780660.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-words-are-spelled-wrong-in-your-opinion/780660.md?page=3)