50 Words with Alternative Spellings

50 Words with Alternative Spellings 50 Words with Alternative Spellings 50 Words with Alternative Spellings By Mark Nichol 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.) Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the General category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:45 Synonyms for â€Å"Food†Writing the CenturyPhrasal Verbs and Phrasal Nouns

Nothing Gets Me High Like Writing

Nothing Gets Me High Like Writing Nothing gets me high and offers relief from the suffering like blackening pages, writing.  ~Leonard Cohen This is the part of our profession that we quickly forget. The sea of authors is just that. . . an undulating sea. They rise up with glee about the release of a book. . . then slide down and bottom out when the sales arent as expected. Highs and lows, but mostly about publishing. Most of them blame someone else for their writer problems. Of late Ive seen them blame: 1) Amazon algorithms 2) Amazon promoting its own imprints before other publishers 3) Amazon allowing used book sellers to appear before new books 4) Publishers being greedy 5) Self-published authors gobbling up market share 6) Or vice versa, traditional authors gobbling up market share 7) The glut of cheap sales free, 99 cents, etc. 8) A bad editor 9) Indie bookstores not wanting indie authors And in all that blame, the writer forgets why they started writing in the first place. . . for the high of sculpting words. For the joy of designing that perfect sentence. The business side of writing is in flux, and that flux changes faster and faster. Technology and creative ideas fly like bullets as writers attempt to take advantage and break loose of the fray and be seen. . . and make sales. Fight to be different than all the other people out there writing books. If we dont constantly market, we backslide. And if we constantly market, we write less. And write less quality. Most businesses will tell you to return to the basics when things are not going well. For writers, thats writing well, writing for self, and reaching for that writing high. Sink into writing. Then when its written, come up for air and publish, because if you think about publishing before you finish the book, youll be outdated in your thinking