Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The forming of words with letters in an accepted order; orthography.
- n. The art or study of orthography.
- n. The way in which a word is spelled.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A story; a relation; a tale.
- n. The act of one who spells; the manner of forming words with letters; or thography.
- n. A collocation of letters representing a word; a written word as spelled in a particular way.
Wiktionary
- v. present participle of spell.
- n. uncountable The act, practice, ability, or subject of forming words with letters, or of reading the letters of words; orthography.
- n. uncountable The manner of spelling of words; correct spelling.
- n. countable A specific spelling of a word.
- n. US, rare, dated, countable or uncountable A spelling test or spelling bee.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The act of one who spells; formation of words by letters; orthography.
- adj. Of or pertaining to spelling.
WordNet 3.0
- n. forming words with letters according to the principles underlying accepted usage
Etymologies
- 1400s, from spell (verb) + -ing. (Wiktionary)
Examples
““Henry the Fift” [_this spelling is used consistently_] except the “Faery Queen,” [_spelling unchanged_] next to the Miter and Phænix [_error for “Phœnix” in original_] [Stz. 3 sidenote] ...”
“[_anomalous spelling unchanged in both] -- To my own hindrence did I try. [_spelling unchanged_]”
The Fables of Phædrus Literally translated into English prose with notes
“CM: Of course, my name spelling is even different from my grandfather's name spelling.”
“Hey Butch, if Dutch goes back to school, make sure he enrolls in English 101; his spelling is a little rusty ...”
“If your spelling is any indication of you education, you should go back to school while you still have time in life.”
Think Progress » Carl Cameron Gets Chummy With Brown Supporters, Ducks Question Of Fox News’ Ethics
“And by the way, the themes of the posters are selected by the crews, and name spelling is verified by each crew member before it is printed.”
“Another large chunk appear fine until I start to read them: the spelling is abysmal, the punctuation non-existent, and the syntax is convoluted.”
“Of course, in a sense, we all start from scratch in childhood, and children who start with a language like Spanish, where the spelling is almost perfectly phonetic, pick up reading much, much sooner than children who have to learn all the crazy rules and exceptions of English spelling.”
“There's a john smendrovac in the US, and on his blog, his spelling is almost as bad as above.”
Plasma and LCD, step aside? Take a peek at Laser TV | Sync Blog
“No, wait, I take that back; her spelling is as bad as yours.”
Think Progress » Rep. King: NYT Reporters Should Be Charged Under Espionage Act
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘spelling’.
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Language
word, sentence, novel, book, novella, vignette, memoir, anthology, paragraph, stanza, poem, haiku and 123 more...
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SCIE - publications
The vocabulary of scientific paper submission
enclose, resource, meaningful, margin, embedded, publisher, mentor, clip, spelling, appendix, gloss, refer and 188 more...
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him and i
peach, left, alone, abandon, horid, gay, bloody, beautiful, outside, inside, confused, unconditional and 111 more...
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Samme's Words
soliloquy, meander, creativity, magic, discovery, happiness, empowerment, abundance, [magnificent], iridescent, artistic, magical and 694 more...
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Only on Wordie/Wordnik
Okay, mostly on Wordie. But it's more fun here anyway.
brannock device, polari, stupidhead, in toto, nounal, flustrated, stuffocate, firkin, full-assed, placeholder name, pro-text, cheesequake and 408 more...
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Conversations for the Ages
A list of words that have fascinating conversations on them. Or just, you know, really funny ones. If I missed any, I hope someone will let me know...
Also see a few other Wordizens' l...misuse, slough of despond, drinking problem, sausage fest, vergerhade, baromets, todal, googlewhack, quetzalcoatl, cheesewa, cheesois, absinthe and 187 more...
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davidg666's list
perforce, angst, exigently, quarter, cuisle, logic, emotion, exfenestrate, defenestrate, dysphasia, spelling, provost and 4 more...
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Metaforwhats
Abiguous words, equivocation, poetically delightful, simple yet multi-meaninged polysemy; emblems and gremlins. I've put the paradoxical ones on the Contranympho list.
frequency, snap, windswept, button, syntax, aftertaste, seed, notes, door, spark, click, prism and 85 more...
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who?
telling detail, transformation, geometry, light, negative space, words, grammar, spelling, etymology, astronomy, terraforming, science fiction and 28 more...
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writing
words associated with writing and writing systems
bokmål, hangul, kana, circumflex, diacritic, umlaut, tréma, hanzi, hiragana, kanji, katakana, pinyin and 5 more...
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words about words
palindrome, syllable, vowel, consonant, alphabet, vocabulary, etymology, Synonym, antonym, anagram, verb, noun and 39 more...
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Davidov06's Words
leid, supervene, bouleversement, precipice, stalagtite, stalagmite, exist, co-exist, coil, pill, rectum, antelope and 61 more...
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Spelling Words
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Word Guidelines for Wordie
A set of rules I try to use for adding words to the site. Details for each rule are found in the first comment.
These rules are entirely unofficial! They are my own, and you can make gui...unpunctuated, unligatured, unaccented, lowercase, spelling, basic, exists
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SpellTestApril
Tweets
Looking for tweets for spelling.

reesetee Or something. May 20, 2009
chained_bear Uhh... I found a pretty good example of bad spelling here. Now there's a guy who needs a copyeditor. May 20, 2009
reesetee Qroqqa, they laid off all of my company's copyeditors last fall, and guess what? Since then, every manuscript we've received has been perfect!
*extremely heavy sarcasm* May 20, 2009
bilby Joel's chalet. May 20, 2009
chained_bear May I just say, on your behalf, "J***s Ch***t." May 20, 2009
qroqqa *hands up* I have just come from drinkiepoos with our team of copy editors, all of whom have been laid off today. Apparently the idea is all the writers will write perfect English from the start and all I have to do is proof-read it. May 20, 2009
chained_bear They're all being laid off, it seems, because people (who usually cannot, themselves, spell) think they're unnecessary. May 19, 2009
rolig Gosh, remember when there used to be copy-editors? May 19, 2009
chained_bear Thanks, skip.
I think that's one of the best misspellings I've heard of lately. May 19, 2009
skipvia Cats' eyes and star sapphires, si. May 19, 2009
sionnach Isn't chatoyance what cats' eyes do? Or am I thinking about foudroyance? Or maybe food-roints?
Is very confused. May 19, 2009
chained_bear Brackets on shitoyance please! I have just the list for it! May 19, 2009
skipvia "Gorgeous Italian Spruce top with bearclaw figure that exhibits a brilliant shitoyance when turned in the light." Martin Music.
I think he means chatoyance, but maybe the guitar just looks like...ummm...crap. May 19, 2009
skipvia Perhaps this guy should switch to a language with words that aren't so difficult to spell. Oct 8, 2008
jennarenn oroboros, that is a darling poem! I love the site as well. :) Jul 22, 2008
skipvia Sadly ironic video in which Fox News misspells the word "education" during its newscast. Jul 22, 2008
oroboros I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you,
On hiccough, thorough, lough and through?
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps?
Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird,
And dead: it's said like bed, not bead -
For goodness sake don't call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat
(They rhyme with suite and straight and debt).
A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother,
And here is not a match for there
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear,
And then there's dose and rose and lose -
Just look them up - and goose and choose,
And cork and work and card and ward,
And font and front and word and sword,
And do and go and thwart and cart -
Come, come, I've hardly made a start!
A dreadful language? Man alive!
I'd mastered it when I was five!
--Quoted by Vivian Cook and Melvin Bragg 2004,
by Richard Krogh, in D Bolinger & D A Sears, Aspects of Language, 1981,and in Spelling Progress Bulletin March 1961, Brush up on your English.
More here. Jun 17, 2008
pterodactyl Maybe it's creator was having a bad day. Jun 12, 2008
reesetee Maybe it was printed by one of the local's. Jun 12, 2008
skipvia Sign, professionally printed, in the Payless Rental Car return lane at the Denver airport:
Please leave "keys" in the car.
You know--keys. *wink wink nudge nudge*
I don't get it... Jun 12, 2008
reesetee Sounds as though you're experiencing a stage of Wordie addiction. ;-) Jan 10, 2008
mollusque Anti-batrachian has led me to a lamentable word: antimollusque, a French panvocalic describing the action of a molluscicide, which itself has the variant spelling *shudder* molluscacide, also panvocalic. *Can't resist...must list...Arrgh.* Jan 10, 2008
reesetee I just don't want to think about the anti-batrachian version. Too squishy. Jan 10, 2008
yarb Ha ha. Depends how you interpret "get", rt. I like your reading though. Free toad for those forced to park on the grass. Jan 10, 2008
reesetee I would think it would be pro-batrachian, no? Jan 10, 2008
chained_bear That is my new favorite comment ever. Jan 10, 2008
sionnach To be fair, the sign that says "Park on Grass. Get toad" could be a correctly spelled incitement to anti-batrachian action. Jan 10, 2008
skipvia This may be opening old wounds, but check here for a mind-muddling orgy of misspellings and strange grammatical twists (including the ever-popular "random" use of "quotes"). Jan 10, 2008
reesetee That is truly an excellent visual. We're doomed to giggle at air quotes from now on. :-) Oct 25, 2007
trivet What the bear said. *snicker* Oct 25, 2007
chained_bear Oh great. Now I'm going to giggle EVERY TIME someone uses air quotes! The mental image of bats trying to climb a glass wall is going to make me use them. Agh! Oct 25, 2007
skipvia Using quotes when they're "not needed" is bad, but even worse is when a speaker makes air quotes. They look like bats trying to climb a glass wall. Oct 25, 2007
chained_bear Ha! That's a "great" site! ;) Oct 23, 2007
uselessness In that case, you'll "love" the Gallery of "Misused" Quotation Marks. ;-) Oct 22, 2007
chained_bear Or, like the sign I saw the other day:
Lost "Keys"
Please return to... (etc.)
Perhaps the author really did mean that the misplaced object masquerades as keys. AGH!
Skipv, one of my (least) favorites is similar to your example, but mixes up the cases entirely: "I can't believe he did that to her and I." STABBY!! STABBY STABBY!! Oct 22, 2007
reesetee Or "Myself and Bob decided not to go." *shudder* Oct 22, 2007
skipvia On the nosey, U. It's the same phenomenon that we experience when people say "Bruce was really mean to she and I," but that's another story... Oct 22, 2007
uselessness I have to wonder about people who go out of their way to insert unnecessary punctuation. It's easier to type your than you're! It's easier to type locals than local's! It's a two-for-one deal: save yourself the trouble of typing extra characters, AND get the added bonus of being correct. Who wouldn't want that?
A frightened part of me suspects that these people assume using more letters and punctuation marks equals being more grammatically intelligent. Like refusing to acknowledge that its really is the possessive form of it, because it's not as "complete" as it could be. Oct 22, 2007
reesetee And the famous "Woman, without her man, is nothing." Changed to "Woman: Without her, man is nothing." :-) Oct 22, 2007
chained_bear That reminds me of a story (possibly apocryphal) about the wife of Peter the Great (or was it Ivan the Terrible...?) who had a merciful streak as well as being more literate than her husband. She intercepted a note from the emperor to one of his officers about the fate of a man who was imprisoned. The note supposedly said: "Pardon impossible. To be sent to Siberia."
Allegedly the woman changed the punctuation to read: "Pardon, impossible to be sent to Siberia." And the man's life was saved.
I don't really know or care how true it is. I just thought the use of punctuation to change the meaning was interesting. Oct 22, 2007
reesetee Wait. What if we rearranged the punctuation?
"Support! You're Locals." Oct 22, 2007
skipvia It's also surprisingly difficult to read, isn't it? Oct 22, 2007
chained_bear OUCH! That hurts my head! Oct 22, 2007
skipvia Suport You're Local's!
I saw this handwritten sign in a window a few days ago. The "local's" referred to are local craft makers. I like it because every word is either misspelled or grammatically incorrect. Oct 22, 2007