Common misspellings usually happen for a few predictable reasons: double letters, unusual vowel patterns, silent or unexpected letter combinations, and words whose spelling does not follow the most obvious sound-based guess. Merriam-Webster’s current guide to commonly misspelled words highlights examples such as absence, accommodate, definitely, broccoli, cemetery, committee, consensus, tomorrow, and vacuum.

✅ absence
❌ absense
Merriam-Webster notes that absence has two /s/ sounds, but the second one is spelled with c because of the common -ence ending.

✅ accommodate
❌ accomodate / acommodate
This word trips people up because it has two c’s and two m’s. Merriam-Webster specifically flags that double-letter pattern as one reason it is so often misspelled.

✅ definitely
❌ definately
Merriam-Webster points out a useful memory trick here: definite and definitely contain finite, not finate.

✅ broccoli
❌ brocolli / broccolli
Merriam-Webster notes that broccoli keeps its double c but only a single l, which is one reason many writers get it wrong.

✅ committee
❌ comittee / commitee
This is another classic double-letter word: two m’s, two t’s, and two e’s.

✅ tomorrow
❌ tommorrow
Merriam-Webster’s reminder is simple: tomorrow starts with to-, and the -morrow part is spelled like borrow.

Watch the video for the complete list!

The most common mistake is spelling by sound alone and assuming the most “logical” version must be correct. That is exactly why words like definitely, accommodate, and vacuum cause problems: the written form does not always match the easiest guess a writer might make. Merriam-Webster’s examples repeatedly show the same pattern—extra letters are dropped, the wrong vowels are inserted, or double letters are simplified.

When a word keeps causing problems, do not just reread it—break it into memorable pieces.

Useful examples:

A second practical habit: keep a short personal list of words you misspell often. Since English misspellings tend to repeat, building your own “watch list” is one of the fastest ways to improve everyday writing. Merriam-Webster’s guide is essentially built on that same idea: certain words keep causing the same mistakes again and again.