Sneaky Spellings

Ten frequently misspelled words show up here, each one pointed to by a simple clue. A hint like famous, free time, or family member asks you to write out the trickier word it stands for. One that fools people is aficionado. It looks like it should have a double f, but it keeps just one, a leftover from its Spanish roots. The same single f is what makes it so easy to get wrong. Once you accept the single f, the rest of the word follows its sounds fairly closely. Recommended level: intermediate.

This set asks you to spell 10 troublesome words, each one cued by a plainer term. You might face give way, glowing, or happening and have to produce the right spelling. A surprise here is barbecue, which is properly spelled with a c, even though the q version shows up on signs and menus everywhere. The original spelling keeps the c, so the casual "barbeque" is the odd one out. If you picture the word coming from its Caribbean roots, the c starts to feel a lot more natural. Recommended level: intermediate.

Ten more spelling puzzles wait in this quiz, with a clue leading you to each word. A prompt such as hobby, home appliance, or inquiring sets up the word you need to spell. Here is an odd one: refrigerator has no d anywhere in it, even though its short form fridge clearly does. The full word and its nickname simply refuse to match, which trips up plenty of confident spellers. Saying the long form out loud, with no d in earshot, is the quickest way to remember. Recommended level: intermediate.

This quiz collects 10 words that are notorious for spelling slip-ups, each tied to a clue. You could see landscape, language rules, or lecturer and need to write the matching word. A genuinely surprising one is bellwether, meaning a leader. It comes from a wether, a male sheep that once led the flock while wearing a bell, so it has nothing to do with the weather despite how often people spell it that way. Picturing that bell-wearing sheep is a memorable way to stop the second half from drifting into weather. Recommended level: intermediate.

Ten commonly botched words appear here, each one introduced by a short hint. A clue like matrimony, limit, or little points to a word you then spell out. The one to remember is minuscule, often written as "miniscule." Since it traces back to the word minus, the correct middle is nus, not "nis." Linking it to minus in your head is the easiest way to keep it right. It is one of the few words where trusting the sound leads you straight into the wrong spelling. Recommended level: intermediate.

This quiz puts 10 spelling traps in front of you, each cued by a synonym or a description. You might get mixes air with gasoline, musical instrument, or melt and have to spell the answer. A common miss is liquefy, which most people write as "liquify." Despite that i sound in the middle, the word takes an e instead, putting it in the small club of words that keep an e before the fy. Pairing it with putrefy and stupefy, which behave the same way, helps the e stick. Recommended level: intermediate.

Ten more misspelled words are on deck, each one prompted by a clue. A hint such as officer, obligatory, or one who shares a room leads to the word you must spell. The wildest entry is colonel, which is pronounced exactly like "kernel" yet written c-o-l-o-n-e-l. The sound and the spelling barely seem related, a quirk left behind by the word's twisting path through French and Italian. There is no clean rule for it, so this is simply a word to learn by sight. Recommended level: intermediate.

This quiz features 10 words that are surprisingly hard to spell, each linked to a clue. A prompt like opulence, oppression, or part of a table sets you up to write the right word. The toughest here is rhythm, which gets by with no standard vowels at all. The single y does the work that a, e, i, o, u usually handle, which is why so many people freeze halfway through it. A common memory trick reads it as rhythm helps your two hips move, one word per letter. Recommended level: intermediate.

Ten frequently misspelled words round out this quiz, each one cued by a simpler term. You could see periodical, playful, or picky and need to spell the word that matches. A helpful one is conscience, which hides the whole word science inside it. Spotting that buried word makes the back half easy to get right, and it neatly separates conscience from the similar-looking conscious. Holding the two apart in your mind keeps you from mixing up where each one ends, since the two look almost identical at the start. Recommended level: intermediate.

This set asks you to spell 10 tricky words, each one introduced by a clue. A prompt such as proof of payment, puzzling, or proliferate points to the word you write out. An easy one to slip on is truly. It comes from true but quietly drops the e, so there is no "truely" even though your ear expects one. A handful of words do this, and truly is the one people miss most. Its cousin duly behaves the same way, dropping the e from due. Recommended level: intermediate.