This is a short list of the spelling errors I most commonly see on Wikipedia.
| Incorrect | Correct | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Adolph Hitler | Adolf Hitler | |
| affect (n.) | effect (n.) | See effect/affect below |
| ahold (get ahold of something) | a hold | |
| alot | a lot | |
| artical | article | |
| aswell | as well | Two words, not one |
| atall | at all | |
| atleast | at least | |
| avaliable | available | |
| awhile | a while | |
| bizzare | bizarre | One z, two r's |
| Britian | Britain | |
| calender | calendar | |
| can not | cannot | Can not is possible in a certain context, but the usual negation of "can" is "cannot" |
| concensus | consensus | This is Wikipedia, goddamit! If we can't spell consensus right, who the hell can? |
| consistant | consistent | |
| could of, would of, should of | could have, would have, should have | or could've, would've, should've |
| criteria used as a singular | criterion | One criterion, many criteria; see also phenomena |
| decent | descent | Easily confused: My mother, who is of Patagonian and Maltese descent, can't come to the door right now because she's not decent. |
| defiantly (to mean definitely) | definitely | |
| definately | definitely | |
| desert | dessert | Easily confused: Lawrence crossed the Arabian desert; to cool down, he ate some icecream for dessert, and reckoned he'd got his just deserts. |
| effect (v.) | affect (v.) | Effect is normally a noun (The effect this revelation had on my plans was enormous); it can be used as a verb meaning to bring about or bring into effect; but the verb meaning to change or have an effect on something is affect (This revelation will enormously affect my plans) |
| except (v.) | accept | To accept means to receive; to except means to exclude |
| existance | existence | |
| ex-patriot | expatriate | Unless you're really talking about a person who's no longer a patriot, i.e. a traitor |
| guage | gauge | |
| grammer | grammar | |
| heirarchy | hierarchy | Nothing to do with inheritance |
| incase | in case | |
| instore | in store | |
| it's (possessive pronoun: The dog was waving it's tail) | its (The dog was waving its tail) | it's is an abbreviation for the verb it is (It's a lovely day today) or it has (It's been a lovely day today) |
| loath vs. loathe | to loathe (v.) means to hate or despise (I loathe people who make this mistake); loath (adj.) means reluctant (I am loath to publicly rebuke them for their errors) | |
| loose (v.) | lose | loose is used as a verb only in archaic contexts ("... that they may be loosed from their sins"). Loose is usually used as an adjective, meaning the opposite of tight. |
| In the mean time | In the meantime | |
| miniscule | minuscule | From the Latin minusculus; nothing to do with mini- |
| mischevious | mischievous | |
| negligable | negligible | |
| noone | no one | "Nobody" is one word, but "no one" is 2 words |
| occassion | occasion | |
| occuring, occurence |
occurring, occurrence | |
| onstage | on stage | |
| perjorative | pejorative | From the Latin peior (worse); nothing to do with purging and should not be pronounced like that |
| phenomena used as a singular | phenomenon | One phenomenon, many phenomena; see also criteria |
| plauge | plague | |
| predominately | predominantly | |
| preferance | preference | |
| publically | publicly | |
| recuring | recurring | |
| rediculous | ridiculous | |
| relevent | relevant | |
| renumeration | remuneration | The first one is about re-numbering a group of things. Nothing to do with payment for services rendered, which is usually what is intended. |
| rouge | rogue | |
| sacreligious | sacrilegious | |
| sentance | sentence | |
| speach | speech | |
| supposably | supposedly | |
| their/there/they're | Their is a possessive pronoun: my dog, your cat, his pony, our tiger, their parrots. There is a preposition - over there. They're is a verb, an abbreviation of "they are": They're my best friends. | |
| I am better then you | I am better than you | |
| That's to bad | That's too bad | |
| underage | under age | |
| underway | under way | |
| visa versa | vice versa | |
| were/where | "were" is the past tense of the verb "to be" (They were walking up the hill). "Where" is an adverb (I know where you are. But where is Wally?) | |
| who's (relative pronoun) | whose | Any man whose name is Peter, step forward. Any man who's less than 5 feet tall, take a step backward. Who's is an abbreviation for 'who is' or 'who has' (Who's in charge around here?) |
| your an asshole | you're an asshole | Your is a possessive pronoun, like my, her, his, our, their etc: Your opinion and mine are different, but we can still be friends. What we need here is a verb, you are, abbreviated to you're. |