What are the top 100 hardest words to spell?
Now, isn't this a fun thing to think about? What makes a word difficult to spell? A word can be difficult because it has arrived in our English dictionaries from a language very different from our own, like Welsh, Afrikaans, Sanskrit, etc. It can be difficult because the pronunciation doesn't obviate the spelling. It can be difficult because it has a silent letter, or two, or three. It can be difficult because it has a peculiar double letter, such as aa or ii or kk, etc. So, to pick a list of "the 100 hardest words," we started with a very long list of very difficult words, then started throwing out words that had some of the same elements of difficulty and we continued to cull words until we found what we perceive to be some of the hardest words to spell. If these are not the hardest words to spell, they are, at the very least, a very difficult list of 100 words. How many are you able to recognize? Sign up now for our free online spelling eMentor Demo and see how you can learn to spell and pronounce these very difficult words! Our most difficult word lists are our Blitz Lists. Want to go further? Try our Personal Spelling Coach Program. Enjoy this list of some of the toughest words in the English language!
abacaxi
abgesang
abiuret
advocaat
aitch
aloisiite
atlatl
autochthonous
bdelloid
bhagavata
bhikku
bobbejaan
cassioberry
catapleiite
chhatri
chiaroscurist
chihuahua
chlorophyll
chthonic
cixiid
cnemidocoptes
cnidoblast
coelacanth
courtoisie
crwth
ctenii
cywydd
dhole
dvandva
Dzungar
eczema
egueiite
Eichhornia
eudaemonic
fjeld
gnathonic
gneissoid
gnomonic
gnosticize
jharal
Kharijite
khedive
kiekie
kierkegaardian
knaidlach
Kwakiutl
logorrhea
mbira
mlechchha
Myxosporidiida
ngege
ngwee
periscii
pfeffernuss
pfennig
phalaenopsid
phthalein
phthisis
prosciutto
pschent
psephology
pseudaxis
psittaceous
psoriasis
ptarmic
pterodactyl
ptosis
pycnogonid
qiviut
rhathymia
rhotacismus
rijksdaalder
rygbere
sacrilegious
schokker
sforzando
sgabello
shanghaiing
sjambok
soubrette
staphylococci
svedberg
synecdoche
taaffeite
taeniid
takkanah
tchaviche
teonanacatl
tjaele
tsao
Tsingtao
tzigane
Ursprache
vignette
volksraad
vrbaite
weltanschauung
ylem
ytterbium
zuurveldt
zwetschenwasser