60+ Hard Words To Spell For College Students
Are you wondering what words college students regularly misspell? Here are some super hard words to spell for college students.
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Spelling is an incredibly important skill to have in college. You’ll constantly be writing papers, emailing professors, and applying to internships and jobs during your four years of college.
Having good spelling and grammar skills will help you be seen as smarter and more professional.
If you want to improve your spelling skills, it’s important to be aware of what words are commonly misspelled.
Learning these hard spelling words will help you in so many ways when it comes to reading and writing.
We put together a long list of the hardest words to spell for college students. These are tough words with common misspellings that you should know.
What Makes A Word Hard To Spell?
There are many words in the English language that are harder to spell than others.
The most difficult words are typically those with silent letters, words derived from old English, or double consonants.
Some of the most difficult words involve letters that can (but don’t always) make the same sounds, like the letter c and the letter s.
A lot of the hardest words to spell also contain consecutive consonants that don’t change the way the word is pronounced.
What Are The Hardest Words To Spell For College Students?
Let’s get right into it! Here is a list of hard words that college students regularly spell wrong.
1. Wednesday
This is by far the hardest day of the week to spell. The silent d always tends to trip people up when spelling Wednesday.
2. Ingenious
This common word is surprisingly hard to spell. Because the pronunciation contains the word “genius”, spellers tend to forget the o when spelling this word.
3. Minuscule
The correct spelling of this word is “minuscule” not “miniscule” as it is commonly misspelled. This is one of those English words that is pronounced differently than it is spelled.
That makes it one of the more challenging words to spell in the English language.
4. Weird
The common rule of i before e except after c does not apply to the word weird. This is one of those exceptions to literary rules that just needs to be memorized.
5. Misspell
Isn’t it ironic that “misspell” is one of the most commonly misspelled words?
The double consonants is usually what causes mistakes when spelling this word.
6. Tomorrow
Although this word is common in everyday conversations, it is still one of the most commonly misspelled words.
The most common spelling error is adding a double m or forgetting the double r in this word.
7. Mischievous
Some of the trickiest words are those that have consecutive vowels. Mischievous has two sets of consecutive vowels that don’t change the pronunciation.
That makes it a really tough word for college students to spell.
8. Irresistible
There are two aspects of the word “irresistible” that make it tricky to spell. The first part that trips people up is the double consonant at the beginning of the word.
Another hard part about this word is the “-ible” ending. Many people try to spell it with the letter a instead of an i.
9. Temperament
The word temperament is typically pronounced without the a sound in the middle. This causes a lot of confusion when spelling it.
10. Vacuum
Vacuum is a tricky word to spell for any grade level. The double u is not a common occurrence in the English language.
What Are Some Hard College Vocabulary Words?
Some of the hardest words to spell are those that have to do with academics or the college experience.
Here are some of the hardest college vocabulary words for students to spell.
11. Pronunciation
This is a commonly used word in college if you are a linguistics or foreign language major. However, plenty of students get it wrong.
Although the word pronunciation relates to the word “pronounce”, it is spelled differently. Many students will add an o to the middle of this word, which is incorrect.
12. Intelligence
It is common for college students to leave out the double consonant in the word intelligence.
Make sure you get this one right – it’ll help show off your intelligence!
13. Accomplish
Here is another case of a tricky double consonant. Don’t forget to add in the second c when spelling the word accomplish.
14. Accommodate
Two sets of double consonants make accommodate a very tricky word to spell.
Many students will only remember one double consonant or the other.
15. Thousandths
Math majors should make note of how the word thousandths is spelled. It is common to leave out the d near the end of the word.
16. Transferred
Many students tend to transfer schools after their first or second year. Don’t forget that the past tense of this word has a double r.
17. Psychology
A silent p at the start of the word makes psychology very difficult to spell for many students.
18. Professor
The word professor is an important one to remember how to spell. Make sure you are ending the word with -or, and not the common mistake of ending it with -er.
19. Permissible
Words that end in -ible or -able are very commonly misspelled among college students. Don’t forget that the word permissible ends in -ible!
20. Quizzes
Although this word is very common in a university setting, it still gets misspelled a ton. College students tend to leave out the double z when spelling quizzes.
More Hard Words To Spell For College Students
21. Address
22. Occurence
23. Silhouette
24. Mortgage
25. Immediately
26. Maintenance
27. Evaluative
28. Soliloquy
29. Tranquility
30. Strenuous
31. Vengeance
32. Undoubtedly
33. Ridiculous
34. Humorous
35. Coordinates
36. Exaggerate
37. Picnicking
38. Temperature
39. Succeeds
40. Pharaoh
41. Handkerchief
42. Logorrhea
43. Conscience
44. Particularly
45. Parallel
46. Thorough
47. Treacherous
48. Wintry
49. Whether
50. Rhythm
51. Twelfth
52. Ubiquitous
53. Referred
54. Extraneous
55. Acknowledgement
56. Surveillance
57. Privileged
58. Changeable
59. Entrepreneur
60. Maneuver
61. Miniature
62. Conscious
63. Asthma
How To Improve Your Spelling Skills
If you find yourself struggling to spell words in college, you’re not alone.
Smartphones with autocorrect are super helpful, but they can make it easy to slack off when it comes to learning how to spell.
Improving your spelling skills will help you immensely when it comes to reading and writing in college.
Here are some ways you can improve your spelling skills:
- Read more. The more you read, the more you will be exposed to different combinations of vowels and consonants. It’s much easier to learn the spelling of a word you have already been exposed to.
- Learn the rules. Not every word follows common English spelling rules, but most do. Make sure that while you’re studying the rules, you also study the exceptions to the rules.
- Spell out loud. Spelling a word out loud can make it easier for you to remember it. Create a list of words you want to learn how to spell and spend some time spelling out each letter out loud.
These are the most difficult words for college students to spell. Hopefully now you’ll be able to practice and spell these hard college vocabulary words!
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