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According to a new study, "definitely" is the most misspelled word in English. (This might be the Queen's English, and not American English though, since "manoeuvre" also made the list.) Also on the list were broccoli, phlegm, bureaucracy, indict, consensus, unnecessary, sacrilegious and prejudice.
General opinion surrounding the poll seems to blame text messaging for our inability to spell. You know, because people are always texting the words "bureaucracy" and "sacrilegious." Spell check perhaps could shoulder a little blame, but typing OMG into your phone is not automatically the same thing as not being able to spell words correctly.
The most irritating words and phrases in the English language. 
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Monday 15 June
By hi
ashame = a shame
morales = morals
Monday 15 June
By kevin
Where are teachers being laid off by the thousands?
Is this a widespread problem or perhaps localized in CA where the govt spent more than it took in for years?
Tuesday 16 June
By Jeanna
Don't you mean "morals", not morales?
Tuesday 16 June
By bkn138
Dear Teacher..
Please note..
As a teacher, I agree that spelling is at the bottom of our educational system. It is ashame *(a shame?) that our students neither can spell nor write *(double negative?) complete sentences. I agree with the person who stated that the American dream isn't what it used to be. What has happened to the America I was taught? *(you were taught America? ) The dreams are not there. (There where?) It seems that everything in America has been affected by the wars, the financial crisis, and our morales *(morals?). The federal government is only helping the irresponsible people in our country. The financial institutions and the auto makers ---the cause of all of our financial problems--are the ones being rewarded over and over with billions and billions of dollars while our school teachers are being laid off by the thousands. It will take America decades to catch up in the education field with all the lay offs *(layoffs)
Home schooling is looking better and better!! Nuff' said!.
Tuesday 16 June
By Frank
Seriously? You're a teacher? No wonder we are in such trouble. You wrote "a shame" as one word instead of two; you put "neither" ahead of "can;" you added an "e" to "morals;" you wrote "only helping" instead of "helping only;" and you wrote "layoffs" as two separate words. I hope that you are not an English teacher.
Tuesday 16 June
By Kristen
You had some spelling and grammer problems in your comment. It should be "a shame" instead of "ashame"; it should be "can neither spell nor write complete sentences" instead of "neither can." And "morales" should be "morals." I'm an English major in college so spelling and grammer mistakes really stand out.
Monday 15 June
By Laura
I just knew 'definitely' would be the number one word. Another word that is often misspelled is 'congratulations'. It drives me crazy when it's spelled 'congradulations'!
Reply
Monday 15 June
By Jan SCanlon
How many many times have you seen , "receive", ....misspelled as"recieve" ?
Reply
Tuesday 16 June
By jaguignon
I was told to remember "i before e' except after c'". So receive is spelled ei not ie. Englsih is one of the most difficult languages in the world.
Monday 15 June
By Debbie
In my experience (I am an English teacher), the most frequently misspelled word is "tomorrow." And of course no one except psychologists seems to be able to spell "psychology." People today seem to have a "conscious" rather than a "conscience," and they don't even try to develop a "consciousness" of correct spelling.
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Monday 15 June
By gg
When I read the comment posts, there are quite a few words that when misspelled, drive me crazy: LOSE (ppl. spell it loose), definitely, (not defenately), friend, (ppl. spell it freind), receive (ppl. spell it recieve), etc. Don't you people go to school; do a spell check; how do you teach your children when you cannot spell it yourself?? Grow up and learn how to spell already! Great article. Thanks for posting!!
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Monday 15 June
By ROSH
I taught public school for thirty-six years. Our district adopted the 'wholistic' approach because the school board was 'duped' by a language arts so-called 'expert' who insisted that correcting misspelled words would cause the student embarassment and lower their self esteem. I wonder how embarassed they are now on their jobs. I wonder how many dropped out of school.
None of the school board members had ever been a teacher. We teachers objected but were forced to adopt Betty _____'s rules. Betty also said that spelling should be taught from all subjects -- pull a word or two from each one and make a list to be memorized. No phonics was taught. I taught fifth grade and refused to follow Betty's instructions.
Parents, no matter what the 'experts' say, go to the school board and fight for your child to have a good education. Fight against the 'inclusion' program where Special Ed. kids are put in the classroom and the teacher spends most of their time dealing with the problems related to that child while the regular kid just sits and waits while losing precious time he needs for his education.
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Monday 15 June
By laurarvail1
I agree with you Rosh, this "whole language" nonsense is exactly that. I "home-school" my kids (the littler ones, I have 6 sons - too late for the older ones [they all graduated from high school, and can form a complete sentence - properly spelled]) so they have a clue of what they're going to encounter in the next year. I teach them the way I was taught... I don't give a rat's patootie how they want to teach them, and they (rightly) give me a wide berth to pretty much teach my youngest the way I see fit. He is 9 years old (going into the 4th grade) and reading on a 5th-6th grade level, and will be tackling Pre-Algebra (pre, pre, pre Algebra) in the Fall. I know a lot of parents have to work outside of the home (I do Payroll for my husband's company, so I can stay in the offce [my living room]) and don't have this luxury... also with so many teen moms who never finished high school, it's very hard for them to extend themselves to educate their kids...
Monday 15 June
By EvieBaby
I used to work in a shoe store and I would hear people ask their friends, family members and/or co-shoppers at least 100 times a day, "do you like these ones or those ones?" and I would just want to SCREAM - "it's THESE or THOSE" not, "these ONES and those ONES"... but, never did.
Another common mistake that I hear every day on the news, in movies, in conversation with others is "I wish I was a ..............." it's "I wish I WERE" because WAS in past tense - something that already happened.
Anywho... encourage your children to read. Reading leads to knowledge, knowledge leads to power!
Reply
Tuesday 16 June
By Maria
I wish I was instead of I wish I were.....that's a pet peeve of mine! I actually had an argument with a reasonably intelligent person about that. He INSISTED that it should be "I wish I was," and I think that's because it's said wrong so often that he now believes "I wish I was" is correct!!!
I wish I were anywhere else!
Monday 15 June
By laurarvail1
I agree with rockincat... my son's first grade teacher (around the Halloween season) spelled "werewolf" as "warewolf". My brother , who works as a copy editor read one of her "sent home" notes. Even after reading one sentence OUT LOUD; we still had no clue what she was trying to convey. Not surprisingly, she could not pass the Regent's Test to continue teaching (The exact same test that Seniors must pass to graduate from high school)
The rule for "alot"... does it make sense to write "alittle" - two words...
the same as "alright", or is it "alwrong"?
Reply
Monday 15 June
By becky mizzell
I am a reg. nurse and there is one word that is constantly being spelled wrong...RECEIVE...it seems some nurses never learned "i before e except after c, unless sounded as a as in neighbor and weigh?.. usually they write the ei backwords and write recieve...I can't help it but I go over it and change it to receive..I would like to say something but I don't want to offend anyone...what should I do?:
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Wednesday 17 June
By Miss Chivas
Read my "I" Before "E" Except After "C" note above, as well as:
An augmented American version is:
i before e
except after c
or when sounding like a
as in neighbor and weigh
which excludes many of the exceptions but still fails to correctly handle many others.
A lesser known addendum in America is: Neither financier seized either species of weird leisure.
A British version is:
when the sound is ee
it's i before e
except after c
which excludes most exceptions, as well as excluding some words (e.g. friend) which are correctly handled by the American version.
The most frequent everyday failures of the British form of the rule are seize, caffeine, protein and, for those who pronounce the initial vowel sound ee, either and neither.
Obviously the expanded versions are going to work better. However, since they're dependent on the alignment between spelling and prounuciation, it's going to be harder to score them. And since they make predictions about different sets of cases, using different numbers of clauses of differing complexity and generality, it's not easy to compare their scores.
Monday 15 June
By terry
All this bad spelling started just where most of you had started, I am not sure what moron at the national education level made the decission to do this. I am willing to bet they were a liberal who thought that teaching our children the old way was a sense of torture and was hurting our children's self esteam. For which I say bull crap. That is in part of the problem and why our children think that a socialist goverment is theway to go. Everything will be handed to them with little or no effort. They were and are not being forced to EARN their advancements, everything in school is graded on the curve system and every child moves on to the next grade whether they actually passed or not. I know there are teachers out there who feel their hands are tied because they have no chioce in the matter. They are told what they can and can't teach. The children are the future of this country and with the way they are being taught in school all I can say is we are doomed
Reply
Tuesday 16 June
By Lucille
Terry ...I'm sorry but you had four words that were misspelled............read over your comments and you will see which ones they were
Lucy