50 Words with Alternative Spellings

19 thoughts on “50 Words with Alternative Spellings”

1. Is “sherbert” (#35)–a misspelling caused by a mispronunciation–seriously accepted as an alternate spelling by some authorities? Ugh.

2. For the sake of clarity:

   Racket and racquet are distinct things and shouldn’t be considered as alternates of the same thing. A racquet is always a piece of sports equipment, whereas a racket can (and always should, IMO) be used to denote an undesirable or alarming noise.

   Similarly with timbre and timber; not interchangeable.

   Movable looks wrong to me; its structure suggests pronouncing it with a long ‘o’. Likable also looks wrong; it looks as if the ‘i’ should be pronounced short. For both of these words, I prefer leaving the trailing ‘e’ from the root verbs.

   Till is something you do to soil. ‘Til or ’till are contractions, and (IMO) should always include the apostrophe.

   Pixilated is so rare that I don’t think it would do more than cause confusion these days. Forty years ago, everyone would know what it meant; today it refers to electronic displays and would likely be considered a misspelling.

3. A family member, somewhat to my annoyance, refuses to use “gray” under any circumstances. My spouse, though—who teaches college-level English Composition and who also edits—corrects all instances of “grey.” I mean absolutely no offense/offence to our good friends in the UK and UK-influenced locales, for whom the e-spelling is correct.

4. Does 36 say “somber / somber”?

5. Another UK/US difference – we’d say axe & calibre; though I’m interested to note that glamour appears to be favoured over glamor; I’d have expected the other.

6. Melissa:
   Inclusion of a word in a dictionary represents acknowledgment of existence, not endorsement of use. This post was intended to point out irregular but common variations in the spelling of words and clarify which alternative careful writers should employ.

7. 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
   Ouch. Lot’s of problems here. Yes, many of these have to be classified as British vs American distinctions, even if one or the other doesn’t realize it (more often Americans, I’m afraid.) Anything ending in -re instead of -er or -our insted of -or has to be considered such. There is simply no reason for an American to write ochre, caliber, theatre or spectre. Glamour has actually been defended because…I am serioust… it is a more glamorous spelling. By which logic we also have redishes in our salads and it should be fonetick for that very reason. Likeswise sulfur with an F is simply American. So is an H-less yogurt, gray with an A, and sKeptic with a K (though it didn’t make the list.) Aeon must be British if anyone this side of 1910 spells it that way.

   Others are bit odder. Removing the root-final E for words like movable or likable is actually consistent enough with spelling rules. The lost Es after root-terminal Gs is problematic (judgment) but as far as I know the E-less spelling is considered standard in American. The G’s following a D makes it possible, and perhaps passable, since that usually Js the G, but it still just doesn’t sit quite right.

   No, the E-lessness doesn’t make the O in movable any different from its already messed-up sound in move. It’s the spelling of the root word that needs to be fixed (moove is certainly logical.) And as far a likable, the I before a K by itself is still going to be long like like with or without an E on the end. A C before the K and after the I would make it lickable—just like it does. Is anyone really accepting “donut” as standard?

   I join in the condemnation of “sherbert”. Good grief. And, finally, “till” is not a contraction of “until”, it is a word in its own write and speak and has been since the beginning, all opinions aside.

8. The verdict from Microsoft Word; these words are unacceptable:

   appal
   calibre
   inclose
   enrol
   furore
   mollusc
   omelette
   pixillated
   sherbert
   spectre
   sulphur
   til
   woollen

   (The Grammarly plug-in accepts them all.)

9. In the world of artillery and cannons, and especially those on warships, the words “caliber” and “calibre” are distinct ones with different meanings. “Caliber” is a measure in fractions of an inch, such as .44 caliber.
   The other one is best illustrated by an example. There was a notable dual-purpose weapon on U.S. Navy ships of World War II, and for decades afterwards, that was designated as 5-inch, 38 calibre. This means that the barrel of the gun is (5″)x(38) = 190 inches = 15 feet, 10 inches long. “Dual-purpose” meant that it was designed for use for both antiaircraft use and for hitting surface targets on the sea or land.
   The 5-inch, 38 calibre gun was of ubiquitous that that it was mounted on destroyers, light cruisers, the antiaircraft cruisers of the “Atlanta” class, heavy cruisers, battleships, aircraft carriers, destroyer escorts, frigates, attack transports, the “large cruisers” of the “Alaska” class, and some submarines (mostly for shore bombardments in the latter case). The American battleships and antiaircraft cruisers carried either 12 or 16 of these weapons, and the other cruisers and the aircraft carriers had 8 to 12 apiece.
   Thus, naval scrapyards and weapons depots have had LOTs of these to melt down or otherwise deal with since 1950 or so.

10. In modern warships, the barrels are longer. On the USN “Ticonderoga” class cruisers and “Arleigh Burke” class destroyers, their guns are still 5-inchers, but with calibres of either 54 or 62.
    This means that the barrels are either (5″)x54 = 270″ = 22 feet, 6 inches,
    or (5″)x62 = 310″ = 25 feet, 10 inches.
    In a well-designed, modern gun, the longer barrel gives a higher muzzle velocity to the shell, yielding longer range and more impact.

    For compatibility with our allies, the U.S. Army and Marine Corps have long, long had artillery produced according to the metric system, and with bores like 60 mm, 75 mm, 81 mm, 90 mm, 105 mm, 120 mm, 155 mm, and 175 mm. On the other hand, the Army’s 203 mm gun has exactly the same bore as a naval 8-inch cannon (of the old heavy cruisers, which are no longer in existence).
    Yet again, the Navy’s new warship USS “Zumwalt” has two guns with 155 mm bores, just like the Army’s and the Marine’s, and that works out to be about 6.10 inches.

11. An essential word in physics that has to do with electromagnetic waves, Special Relativity, and the way that the whole Universe operates, is spelled two ways: “ether” or “aether”.
    These lead to the adjectives “ethereal” and “aethereal”.
    “Ether” is considered to be more American, and “aether” is considered to be more British/Irish, but both spellings are used worldwide.

    There is also an organic chemical called “ether”, but that is a completely different subject. Actually, there is a whole family of organic chemicals called “ethers”.

12. “Oedipus” and “Edipus”; “oedipal” and “edipal”.
    “Odysseus” and “Ulysses”.
    “Hercules” and “Heracles”
    “Chad”, “Tchad”, and “Tschad”.
    “Vienna” and “Wien”; “Vienner” and “Wiener”.
    “Wagoner”, “Wagner”, and “Waggoner”.
    “Weiner”, “wiener”, and “Wiener”.

13. According to the international organization for chemists, “sulfur” is the official spelling, but in the United States, we have Sulphur, Texas, and White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, and Indian Harbour Beach, Florida.
    Otherwise: Boston Harbor, Newport Harbor, New York Harbor, Baltimore Harbor, Savannah Harbor, Long Beach Harbor, San Pedro Harbor, Bremerton Harbor, Pearl Harbor, Valdez Harbor.

14. Yet another pair that has to do with weapons:
    saber and sabre. There is also the tool called the saber saw.
    “Saber” is usually American, but there have been two famous American fighter planes: the F-86 Sabrejet (or Sabre) and the F-100 Supersabre (or Super Sabre).

15. I have also encountered the following words with alternative spellings:

    1.) kerosine/ kerosene
    2.) ketchup/ catsup
    3.) whiskey/ whisky
    4.) barbecue/ barbeque

16. 36.) somber/ sombre

17. D.A.W.; Dale A. Wood (or whatever you call yourself today): several issues I have with your statements:
    1. There are two additional words you should snuggle up to: “brevity” and “relevance”.
    2. Although it appears you essentially killed the conversation (or at the least put everyone else to sleep) I’m actually interested in your sources of information concerning artillery and naval cannons. Not only do your many statements often contradict one another, some are just incorrect altogether. For example: you used “calibre” to define length, and “caliber” as diameter. They both have the same meaning. When using “inch” to define weapon size, it is merely a form of simplicity when referencing a specific cannon (ie. 8 in, 16 in, etc). In no way is that a precise measurement of “bore”.
    3. However in the Field Artillery world, specifically cannons, as you said, metric units of measure are used, though still not the precise measurement. In both cases, they use rounded numbers as part of the nomenclature. To use whole numbers— even in millimeters— lacks the precision necessary to deliver accurate fires. No Redleg would accept that, no more than they accept degrees as a form of measuring direction; both are too vague. Furthermore, the bore size is just that, and does nothing to describe the projectile other than the (rough) diameter.
    4. Converting to metric units of measure was not a decision simply based on weapons. In fact, there’s little benefit there, as there are very few common calibers used by our allies, other than the .50 cal, which is obviously standard. The most important reason for conversion was the measurement of distance, but also in the other units of measure to avoid confusion. (See NASA/Lockheed Martin debacle around Mars)
    5. The U.S. Marine Corps has no bearing whatsoever on either Naval nor Artillery fires. The Field Artillery Proponent is the U.S.Army at Fort Sill, OK.
    6. Lastly, length of the cannon does nothing to enhance the level of impact. In direct fires, of course, but indirect fires? No. As in all matters of physics, once any object has fallen the distance required to achieve maximum velocity, the rest is wasted data. However, if penetration is of concern, than quadrant (angle of elevation) is more to be concerned with. With munitions such as the old “Copperhead”, rocket assist, and the newest member of precision munitions, Excalibur, much of what you thought you knew has long since changed; just as caliber was once calibre. In fact, the whole “FA” world was turned upside down in 2014, when for the first time since WWI, a change was made to the “Five Requirements for Accurate Predictable Fires”.
    It now reads, “Five Requirements for Accurate Fires: 1. Accurate Target Location and Size, 2. Accurate Firing Unit Location, 3. Accurate Weapon and Ammunition Information, 4. Ac- curate Meteorological Information, and 5. Accurate Computational Procedures.”
    I suggest further reading on your part, or perhaps find another website to copy and paste from.

    Oh, and before I forget…my reference: 23 years of service in the Field Artillery, and a member of the Honorable Order of St. Barbara.

18. OK vs okay? Alright vs all right?

19. Bologna is the name of an important Italian city (the oldest university in the world). Bolognese/bolognaise is the name of a dish