Alternate spelling of a word

What is one to do when one finds a choice of spellings in the dictionary? Most dictionaries specify the preferred variant when two or more spellings of a word are listed, but others aren’t so clear.

According to Merriam-Webster’s website, the former spelling is more common than the latter for the following words and is the preferred alternative:

1. acknowledgment / acknowledgement
2. adapter / adaptor
3. adviser / advisor (but advisory)
4. aeon / eon
5. ambience / ambiance
6. amok / amuck
7. appall / appal
8. around / round
9. ax / axe
10. caliber / calibre
11. counselor / counsellor
12. doughnut / donut
13. enclose / inclose
14. enroll / enrol
15. furor / furore
16. glamour / glamor
17. gray / grey
18. impostor / imposter
19. ingrain / engrain
20. inquire / enquire
21. judgment / judgement
22. lambaste / lambast
23. likable / likeable
24. linchpin / lynchpin
25. meager / meagre
26. mollusk / mollusc
27. movable / moveable
28. ocher / ochre
29. omelet / omelette
30. opossum / possum (but playing possum)
31. pincer / pinchers
32. pixilated / pixillated (distinct from pixelated)
33. pompon / pom-pom
34. racket / racquet (but racquetball)
35. sherbet / sherbert
36. somber / somber
37. specter / spectre
38. sulfur / sulphur
39. T-shirt / tee shirt
40. theater / theatre
41. till / ’til or til
42. timbre / timber
43. vial / phial
44. woolen / woollen
45. woolly / wooly
46. yogurt / yoghurt

Discussion of distinctions in alternative spellings of some other words follows:

47. Bologna is the name of the meat product; baloney is a quaint slang synonym for nonsense.
48. Lasagne is an alternate spelling for the pasta usually referred to as lasagna; the latter spelling predominates for the name of the baked dish.
49. Mic and mike are both acceptable as short versions of microphone.
50. Savannah is spelled as such only as the name of the city in Georgia or the name of a hybrid of the serval, an African cat, and the domestic cat; otherwise, it’s spelled savanna.

This list omits spelling variations that are primarily distinct in usage in American English versus British English (though some, such as gray/grey and specter/spectre, are also variations divided by an ocean). See this discussion on that topic with a list of categories of spelling differences. (But it’s a stick and tricky matter, so check out the comments for input from site visitors as well.)

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Here is a list of words with alternate spellings, which will help you in improving your vocabulary.

By India Today Web Desk: Many of the time in your life you have come across the words which sounds similar have a similar meaning but have different spellings. This is all because of British English and Canadian English words that have different American English spellings, for example, colour (British English) and color (American English). Even your dictionary lists two alternate spellings of a word.

Here is a list of words with alternate spellings:

1. acknowledgment / acknowledgement
2. adapter / adaptor
3. adviser / advisor (but advisory)
4. ambience / ambiance
5. caliber / calibre
6. counselor / counsellor
7. doughnut / donut
8. enclose / inclose
9. enroll / enrol
10. furor / furore

11. glamour / glamor
12. gray / grey
13. impostor / imposter
14. ingrain / engrain
15. inquire / enquire
16. judgment / judgement
17. lambaste/lambast
18. likable/likeable
19. linchpin / lynchpin
20. meager / meagre

READ: 50 positive words to describe people

21. mollusk/mollusc
22. movable/moveable
23. ocher/ochre
24. omelet/omelette
25. pincer/pinchers
26. racket/racquet
27. sherbet/sherbert
28. somber/somber
29. specter/spectre
30. sulfur/sulphur

READ: 10 ways to politely say ‘NO’

31. T-shirt /tee shirt
32. theater/theatre
33. timbre/timber
34. vial/phial
35. woolen/woollen
36. woolly/wooly
37. yogurt/yoghurt

READ: 10 synonyms of happiness you can use in your daily life

READ: 50 positive words to describe people

If two subcultures use the same realization (pronunciation) of the same word form (particular inflection of a word) but spell it differently, what is the technical term for the alternative spellings?

One example: apparently in the old days when the word «ye» would show up in books it was actually meant to be pronounced «the», as the «y» was used to stand in for the thorn character («þ»), which represented the «th» (voiced fricative) sound.

A modern example I can think of is «leet speak», where words are spelled with numbers and other non-alphabetic symbols. So «speak» could be represented as «5|>34|<«, and both the meaning and pronunciation of the word form remain the same as «speak», with only the written representation changing.

I’m looking for a term that captures the fact that the two written representations share the same pronunciation, inflection, and meaning. The terms «alternative spelling» or «alternative grapheme sequence» seem like they could serve my purpose but I’m wondering if linguists have decided on some other term instead.

The following words can be spelled in two ways. Where the second spelling is the preferred American English spelling, this is marked with the symbol +. In these cases, the second spelling is often the only acceptable American English spelling.

• acknowledgement — acknowledgment +
• adrenalin — adrenaline
• adviser — advisor
• ambience — ambiance
• annex — annexe
• artefact — artifact +
• balk — baulk
• banister — bannister
• by-law — bye-law
• caffeine — caffein
• carcass — carcase
• castor — caster
• caviar — caviare
• chaperone — chaperon
• chilli — chili +
• cipher — cypher
• conjurer — conjuror
• connection — connexion
• curtsy — curtsey
• dexterous — dextrous
• dispatch — despatch
• douse — dowse
• duffel coat — duffle coat
• dyke — dike
• forego — forgo +
• gram — gramme
• grandad — granddad +
• granny — grannie
• guerrilla — guerilla
• gypsy — gipsy
• hiccup — hiccough
• hippie — hippy
• hooray — hurray
• icon — ikon
• impostor — imposter
• inflection — inflexion
• jibe — gibe
• judgement — judgment +
• kilogram — kilogramme
• likeable — likable +
• liquorice — licorice
• mackintosh — macintosh
• mantelpiece — mantlepiece
• milligram — milligramme
• movable — moveable +
• Muslim — Moslem
• nosy — nosey
• OK — okay
• phoney — phony
• saccharine — saccharin +
• sheikh — sheik
• siphon — syphon
• swap — swop
• Tsar — Czar +
• veranda — verandah
• whirr — whir +
• yoghurt — yogurt

Racket can be spelled racquet when used to refer to a bat with strings which is used for playing a game such as tennis or squash.

Many verbs can end in either ‘-ise’ or ‘-ize’.

Do your students ever get confused with alternative spellings of the same sound? Just think about how many different ways there are to spell the long a sound: ay, ea, a-e, ai, a, eigh, ei … or the er sound: er, ir, or, ur, ear  … or the oo sound: oo, ew, ue, u-e, ui. And those are just a few of the alternative spellings your students will encounter. All the long vowel sounds have alternative spellings for students to learn.

Keep it positive when you introduce new sounds. Start with a word list, and ask students what sounds they hear in common. For example, say these words: mouse, brown, cloud, owl, bound, crown, loud, growl, count, now, pouch, frown stressing the /ow/.

Ask your students what sound they hear in all the words. If they don’t recognize the common, /ow/ sound, tell them that sound is shared. Then repeat the words.

Next, introduce the spellings. As you say each of the first few words, write them on the board. Underline the /ow/ sound in each word. Explain that you can spell /ow/ as ou or ow. For the next word, say the word and write everything but the /ow/ sound. Ask students what they think the correct spelling is.

For example, say crown and write C R ____ N. Ask students to complete the word. Then write the correct spelling in the space: C R OW N.

Keep alternative spellings practice fun

These can be frustrating for kids, so I like to keep practice positive and fun. Two tools I love are cootie catchers and the Spin-Read-Write game.

Cootie Catchers

After introducing different ways of spelling the /ow/ sound, give students a chance to practice with cootie catchers.

Students can work in pairs. They’ll need a:

• Cootie catcher
• Whiteboard or paper with the spellings of the practice sound listed across the top
• Whiteboard marker or pencil

Demonstrate how to work the cootie catchers.

• Choose a picture. (Example: owl)
• Segment the word, opening the cootie catcher for each sound. (Example: OW-L)
• Then choose a word from the inner part of the cootie catcher. (Example: crown)
• Segment the sounds again, opening the cootie catcher once for each sound (Example: C-R-OW-N)
• Choose another word (Example: pouch)
• Open the flap for this word, and think of a word with the spelling of the /ow/ sound shown. (If students get stuck, the cootie catcher has examples.)
• Write the word under the correct spelling of the /ow/ sound, segmenting the sounds as you write it down.
• Then underline the spelling of the /ow/ sound.

Cootie catchers are always popular with my students and can be used for any alternate spelling sounds.

Spin-Read-Write

Spin-read-write is a game that lets students practice both reading and writing words with alternate spellings of a sound.

Students need a grid game board, a spinner with words with the target sounds, and two different colored pens or narrow markers.

Students take turns spinning the spinner, reading the word it lands on, and then writing the word anywhere on the grid. The student who fills a row anywhere on the board wins.

Get more alternative spelling practice ideas

Cootie catchers and Spin-Read-Write provide great practice for those tricky alternative spellings. I’ve used them with the full class divided into pairs, at a literacy station, and even as homework to consolidate learning.

To make it easy for you, I’ve created downloads for several versions of both of these activities. You can get them individually—or better yet, as part of the Complete Phonics Kit. With the kit, you get:

• 2 sets of cootie catchers (over 50 cootie catchers in all) along with instructions for folding and using them in your class.
• 3 Spin-Read-Write game sets (120 games in all, covering 15 different sets of alternative spelling sounds)
• Long Vowel Activities separate packs for each long vowel
• Writing prompts with a phonics focus

And that’s just the alternative spelling activities! You also get tons of activities for:

• CVC words
• Consonant blends
• Digraphs

In all, you get over 1100 pages of phonics activities that are appropriate for students aged 5 to 12 years. Save yourself time and set yourself up with plenty of activities for a fun year of phonics.

Get your Complete Phonics Kit now.

One of the challenges of learning to read and write English is the mastery of alternative spellings. Some of the 44 sounds of English have as many as 12 different ways to spell them! This blog will provide a variety of ways in which you can help learners to achieve mastery of alternative spellings.

It is important that students are systematically taught the logic of the English code if they are to achieve mastery. In most phonics programs, students are initially taught one-to-one letter-sound correspondences – one spelling for the consonant sounds and one spelling for each short vowel sound.

At the next level of understanding, they are taught that two or more letters can represent a vowel or consonant sound.

Long vowel sounds have multiple spellings, often using two or more letters, and are usually taught first at this level because every syllable in a word contains a vowel sound to be represented.

For reading, students also need to know that one letter, or a combination of letters, can represent more than one sound.

To complete the teaching of the code, alternative spellings for consonants and less common vowel sounds are usually taught.

In this blog, I am going to illustrate the systematic teaching of alternative spellings with the representations of the long vowel ‘a’ sound, as in the word ‘apron’. Recognising or producing alternative spellings for a sound can be difficult unless you:

1. make the student aware of the alternative.
2. give the student information about the alternative.
3. provide ways of recalling the alternative.
4. give the student frequent exposure to the alternative.

Make the Student Aware of the Alternative Spellings

Students may already be aware of alternative spellings of a sound due to their knowledge of names – their own, those of family members or of friends and class members. Discussion of these alternatives can be a fun, non-threatening way to introduce the concept of alternative spellings. In my class I might have David, Shay, Gail, and Renee and I would use those names as examples of alternative spellings of ‘long a’.

Choose the alternatives you want to focus on right now. The number of alternatives you explicitly teach at any one time will depend on the skill level of your students. If I am working with a group of students with specific learning difficulties, I would typically only teach two new alternatives at a time, usually alternatives that are hard to confuse.

The choice should also reflect your awareness of the student’s prior knowledge and the usefulness of an alternative. For example, the ‘au’ spelling of ‘long a’, as in ‘gauge’ is rarely seen so I will not be increasing a student’s knowledge significantly if I give that spelling priority over the teaching of ‘ei’ as in ‘rein’ as an alternative spelling of ‘long a’.

I recommend that students build, or are provided with, a sound chart on which alternative spellings are recorded. Usually these are presented in categories – consonants and vowels (short, long and r-controlled). You can download these for free.
One example is this chart created by The Dyslexia-SPELD Foundation. Another is the Alphabetic Code Chart of Phonics International, pictured below.

A teacher will typically give students examples of words with the focus spelling (used in spelling instruction and reading practice) and encourage students to think of/look for more words with the same pattern in order to develop a word bank. These words would be scribed under spelling headings. The students might be asked to copy the words, using a different colour for each of the alternative spellings.

A student sorting through the /ai/ words.

Teachers often have Word Walls in their classroom. These typically organise/display words alphabetically, using their initial letter. They reflect a print-to-speech approach to teaching. In synthetic phonics instruction, which reflects a speech-to-print approach, the initial letter of a word is regarded as no more important than any other letter in the word. A Sound Wall is a more appropriate tool than a Word Wall for making students aware of spelling alternatives and the placement of these in words. A Sound Wall displays words organised by speech sounds (phonemes), typically in two sections, vowels and consonants. Words containing the sound in any position in the word are listed. A Sound Wall usually provides a visual reference, a key word and/or manner of articulation. You can read more about Sound Walls in this blog post.

Give the Student Information About the Alternative Spellings

In spelling and reading, an informed choice of alternative is always preferable to an uninformed guess, so a teacher should try to provide as much useful information about an alternative as possible. This includes:

1. frequency of use in English
2. typical position in a word
3. rules of English that explain the choice
4. the word origin
5. relevance to the part of speech

A sound chart usually presents alternative spellings in order of frequency. This allows the student to select the most probable spelling. The chart usually provides a word containing the spelling that gives a clue about the typical position of that spelling in a word, along with an image. In order of frequency, the representations of the ‘long a’ sound are usually shown as:

You can download our chart to print.

Some charts will only show the first 6 alternatives. The order may vary a little from chart to chart. While the typical positions are shown, a spelling may occur in another position less frequently, for example ‘ai’ can represent the ‘long’ a sound in initial position in words such as ‘aid’ and ‘aim’ but it is most frequently found in the middle of a word.

Sometimes a rule of English spelling will help the student determine which alternative he can use. For instance:

• English words do not end in the letter ‘i’ so ‘ai’ and ‘ei’ are not spellings of ‘long a’ that can be used at the end of a word.
• English words do not end in the letter ‘u’ so ‘au’ will not be used to spell ‘long a’ at the end of a word.
• If the ‘long a’ sound is at the end of a syllable, and not part of a compound word, we usually use ‘a’.
• When the letter ‘a’ is found at the end of a word, it represents a ‘short a’ sound so ‘a’ and ‘ea’ are not used to represent the ‘long a’ sound at the end of a word.

Any pertinent spelling rules should be explicitly taught. A rule may also be related to grammar, for example, ‘ae’ is an irregular plural spelling, as in ‘antennae’.

Knowledge of word origin can sometimes assist the correct selection of spelling alternative. There are quite a number of French spellings of the ‘long a’ sound, such as ‘e’ with an acute accent, ‘e-e’, ‘ee’, ‘ait’ as in ‘parfait’ or ‘et’ as in ‘ballet’.

The French words we have adopted in English often relate to food, dance or entertainment. If a student knows this, he is more likely to spell or read a word correctly. Once upon a time, the “gh” in ‘aigh’ and ‘eigh’ did represent a specific sound – one we don’t have in English today. That back-of-the-throat fricative sound is found in German, and if you look for the German counterpart of English “gh” words, you will often find the sound there, for example, eight…acht, neighbour…nachbar. Word origins can be fascinating!

The part of speech a word plays can sometimes determine the choice of spelling. For example, when thinking about the homophones (words which sound the same but are spelled different) practice/practise or licence/license, it is helpful to know that ‘ce’ is used for the noun and ‘se’ for the verb. There are also many spellings of /l/ and the adjectival suffix is usually spelled ‘-al’.

So, when a student embarks on representing a ‘long a’ sound, the teacher can ask him to think about where he hears that sound in the word, about what the most common spelling in that position is, about the rules of English that apply to the spellings and what, if any, clues he has about word origin.

Provide Ways of Recalling the Alternative Spellings

A mnemonic can help students recall some spelling alternatives, in particular those contained in homophones (e.g. new vs knew). That mnemonic might be a phrase, a sentence, a visual cue or a song. I use a little sentence to help students recall the words most commonly using ‘ea’ to represent ‘long a’: “Dad cooked a great steak on his break.”

I get the kids to illustrate the sentence to aid memory of the words. Phonic Books UK has free posters you can download containing an illustrated sentence that reminds students of spelling alternatives. The one for ‘long a’ is: Baby snail munches kale on a great big tray’. The company also produces free downloadable alternative spelling infographics that you can display in your classroom.

Look for letters in a word that will help the student remember the spelling of ‘long a’. Examples include:

prAy – your hands together make the shape of the capital A (different to ‘prey’)

pail – think of the dot on the ‘i’ as a drop of water falling in the pail (different to ‘pale’)

great – ice cream is great to eat (different to ‘grate’)

pain – I am in pain (different to ‘pane’)

There are numerous songs and videos that can be shown to introduce spelling alternatives to children. English4abc has produced a song for remembering the first three representations of ‘long a’:

Give the Student Frequent Exposure to the Alternative Spellings

The keys to mastery and automaticity are frequent exposure and practice. Here are some ideas for achieving this:

Remembering phonic alternatives may not always be easy, but I hope that at least one of the strategies for mastery discussed in this blog will inspire you and your students. A spiral and frequent review approach will be most effective in consolidating knowledge of the alternatives.

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a list of British English words that have different American English spellings, for example, colour (British English) and color (American English).

Word pairs are listed with the British English version first, in italics, followed by the American English version:

• spelt, spelled

Derived words often, but not always, follow their root. Thus «neighbour/neighbor» give «neighbourly/neighborly», «neighbouring/neighboring» etc. (but «licensing» is used everywhere, in spite of «licence/license»). Plurals and verb forms almost always follow even though not listed here: «analyses/analyzes», «analysed/analyzed» etc. (but note «analysis» is universal).

Some usages identified as American English are common in British English; e.g., disk for disc. A few listed words are more different words than different spellings: «aeroplane/airplane», «mum/mom».

See also: American and British English differences, Wikipedia:List of common misspellings and Wikipedia:Manual of Style#National varieties of English

A[edit]

• acknowledgement, acknowledgment
• adze, adz
• aeroplane /ˈɛərəpleɪn/, airplane /ˈɛərpleɪn/
• aluminium /ˌæljəˈmɪniːəm/, aluminum /əˈluːmɪnəm/ – but note that Wikipedia usage for chemistry-related articles is always aluminium as specified by IUPAC
• anaemia, anemia
• anaesthesia, anesthesia
• analyse, analyze
• analogue, analog (Note: analogue is the preferred U.S. spelling for the noun; however, analog is also acceptable.)
• annexe, annex
• apologise, apologize
• armour, armor
• arse /ɑːrs/, ass /æs/ – except when referring to donkeys, universally «ass»
• artefact, artifact
• authorise, authorize
• axe, ax

B[edit]

• behaviour, behavior

C[edit]

• caesium, cesium – but note that Wikipedia usage for chemistry-related articles is always caesium as specified by IUPAC
• cancelled, canceled
• cancelling, canceling
• carburettor, carburetor
• catsup, ketchup
• centre, center
• cheque, check – for the financial document only
• chequer, checker
• chilli, chili (both spellings abound).
• cypher, cipher
• civilise, civilize – and derived words
• colonise, colonize
• colonisation, colonization
• colour, color
• connexion, connection — but connection is now universally more common except in a few British situations, e.g. the Methodist Church or «affine connexion» in mathematics
• cosy, cozy

D[edit]

• defence, defense
• despatch, dispatch
• diarrhoea, diarrhea
• dialogue, dialog
• disc, disk
• distil, distill
• doughnut, donut (see Doughnut § Etymology for the source of the short spelling)
• draught, draft
• dreamt /drɛmt/, dreamed /driːmd/

E[edit]

• emphasise, emphasize – and derived words
• encyclopaedia, encyclopedia
• enrolment, enrollment
• equalling, equaling
• endeavour, endeavor
• enquire, inquire

F[edit]

• favourite, favorite
• favour, favor
• faeces, feces
• fibre, fiber
• flaky, flakey
• foetid, fetid
• foetal, fetal
• foetus, fetus
• flautist, flutist
• flavour, flavor
• fulfil, fulfill
• furore, furor
• fuelling, fueling

G[edit]

• gaol, jail – but «jail» is common in British English now
• gasses, gases
• generalise, generalize
• glycerine, glycerin
• grey, gray
• gynaecology, gynecology

H[edit]

• haemophilia, hemophilia
• haematology, hematology
• haem, heme
• harbour, harbor
• harmonise, harmonize
• harmonisation, harmonization
• homologue, homolog
• honour, honor
• humour, humor

I[edit]

• industrialise, industrialize
• instalment, installment
• italicise, italicize – and derived words.

J[edit]

• jewellery, jewelry
• judgement, judgment

K[edit]

• kerb, curb – both dialects use «curb» for the verb
• kilometre, kilometer

L[edit]

• labour, labor
• leapt /lɛpt/, leaped /liːpt/
• learnt /lɜːrnt/, learned /ˈlɜːrnɪd/ – past tense of to learn; an educated person is always learned
• leukæmia, leukemia
• licence (noun), license – but always licensing — see practice
• liquorice, licorice
• lit, lighted
• litre, liter
• lodgment, lodgement

M[edit]

• manoeuvre, maneuver
• marvellous, marvelous
• maths, math — as abbreviations for mathematics
• meagre, meager
• metre, meter – for the unit of length. In British English a meter is a measuring device
• modelling, modeling
• milliard, billion – ‘billion’ is now much more common in British English than ‘milliard’ (see Long and short scales)
• mould, mold
• mollusc, mollusk
• moult, molt
• mum, mom
• monologue, monolog
• moustache, mustache
• moisturiser, moisturizer

N[edit]

• neighbour, neighbor – and derived words

O[edit]

• oenology, enology
• oesophagus, esophagus
• oestrogen, estrogen
• odour, odor
• offence, offense
• omelette, omelet
• organisation, organization
• orthologue, ortholog
• orthopaedic, orthopedic

P[edit]

• paediatric, pediatric
• paedophile, pedophile
• paralyse, paralyze
• parlour, parlor
• pedagogue, pedagog
• plough, plow
• practise, practice – as a verb
• pretence, pretense
• prise, prize – the verb, meaning to lever
• programme, program – when not speaking of a computer program
• pyjamas, pajamas

Q[edit]

• quarrelled, quarreled
• quarrelling, quarreling

R[edit]

• realise, realize
• realisation, realization
• recognise, recognize – including ~ed/~ing/… variants
• rigour, rigor
• routeing, routing – defeating completely is always routing
• rumour, rumor

S[edit]

• sabre, saber
• saviour, savior
• savoury, savory
• sceptic, skeptic
• signalling, signaling
• skilful, skillful
• speciality, specialty
• spelt, spelled
• spoilt, spoiled – but note that in American and Canadian English, spoiled is both a past-tense verb (e.g. the milk spoiled) and a past-participial adjective (the spoiled milk). In British English, spoiled is usually the past-tense verb (the milk spoiled), and spoilt is usually the past-participial adjective (the spoilt milk)^[1]
• storey, story – a level of a building
• sulphur, sulfur – but note that Wikipedia usage for chemistry-related articles is always sulfur as specified by IUPAC root

T[edit]

• theatre, theater – theatre is sometimes used in the US
• tyre, tire – the component of a wheel
• tranquillity, tranquility
• travelled, traveled
• traveller, traveler
• travelling, traveling
• tumour, tumor

U[edit]

• urbanisation, urbanization – and derived words.

V[edit]

• valour, valor

• vender, vendor
• vice or vyce, vise – when referring to the tool
• victual, vittle
• vigour, vigor

W[edit]

• wilful, willful
• wintery, wintry
• whisky, whiskey – the former is correct for Scottish spirits, the latter for those distilled elsewhere
• woollen, woolen

X[edit]

Y[edit]

• yoghurt, yogurt

Z[edit]

• zed, zee

References[edit]