صفحة 1
PRACTICAL HIGH SCHOOL
SPELLER
COMPILED BY
TOBIAS O. CHEW, M.S.
SUPERINTENDENT OF CITY SCHOOLS
WASHBURN, WISCONSIN
ALLYN and BACON
Boston New York Chicago
COPYRIGHT, 1914,
BY TOBIAS O. CHEW.
DAAN
Norwood Press
J. S. Cushing Co.—Berwick & Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
Dedicated
TO THE MANY HIGH SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENTS, PRINCIPALS, AND
TEACHERS, WHO BY THEIR COÖPERATION HAVE
MADE POSSIBLE THE COMPILATION
OF THIS BOOK
PREFACE
What are the words most commonly misspelled by the average high school pupil? In an endeavor to solve this problem, two thousand letters, with five postal cards in each, were sent to representative high schools in every state in the United States, requesting the heads of the various departments to report the words most commonly misspelled in their classes. From the many thousand replies, this text-book has been compiled.
The first word in Lesson I was sent in by seven hundred high school teachers; the other words in this lesson show, by their order, the frequency with which they appear in the replies. No word has been considered unless suggested by at least two teachers. This book, then, built on the judgment of those best qualified to know—the teachers themselves—contains only the words most frequently misspelled by the average high school pupil.
A simple phrase is placed after each word, illustrating its use, and serving to identify it better than would a short, abstract definition. The division of words into syllables with accent marks will be of great assistance to the pupil, should there be any question in his mind as to the correct pronunciation. The typography is based on the idea that it will be a great help to the pupil in visualizing the words if he sees them in script as well as in print.
T. O. CHEW.
March, 1914.
A FEW SIMPLE RULES FOR SPELLING
When the diphthongs ei and ie are pronounced [=e], c is followed by ei, all other letters by ie. Examples: ceiling, receive, siege, believe. Exceptions: leisure, seize, weird. The word slice will help pupils to remember this rule—i after l and e after c when applied to believe and receive.
Final y following a consonant changes to i before a suffix not beginning with i. Examples: busy, business; dry, dried. When the suffix begins with i, as in -ing and -ish, the y is retained to avoid having double i. Examples: try, trying; baby, babyish.
When the final y follows a vowel, the y is retained before a suffix. Examples: toy, toyed; betray, betrayed; annoy, annoyed.
To form the plural of words ending in y following a consonant change the y to i and add es. Examples: quantity, quantities; factory, factories.
When the final y follows a vowel, the y is retained and s added. Examples: journey, journeys; delay, delays; money, moneys.
Monosyllables and words accented on the last syllable, which end in a single consonant, following a single vowel, double the final consonant before a suffix beginning with a vowel. Examples: hot, hotter; begin, beginning. Exceptions: (1) gas, gases. (2) The letters w, x, and y are not doubled. Examples: show, showing; box, boxed; pay, paying.
In words not accented on the last syllable, the final consonant may or may not be doubled. Examples: traveler may be spelled traveller; canceled, cancelled; etc.
In words ending in unaccented e, the final e is dropped before a suffix beginning with a vowel. Examples: come, coming; glue, gluing; fine, finer. Exceptions: (1) The e is retained when it is necessary to preserve the identity of the word, as dyeing, singeing. (2) When the final e is preceded by o, as shoeing, hoeing. (3) After c and g when the suffix begins with a or o, as peace, peaceable; outrage, outrageous; courage, courageous.
LESSON 1
{separate} sep´a-rate divisions {receive} re-ceive´ the letter {believe} be-lieve´ in God {until} un-til´ next Monday {there} there he comes {their} their hats are new {principle} prin´ci-ple of physics {principal} prin´ci-pal parts of a verb {business} bus´i-ness of the merchant {parallel} par´al-lel lines {disappoint} dis-ap-point´ us by going {to} to go to town {too} too many rules {two} two dollars in cash {necessary} nec´es-sa-ry food {judgment} judg´ment of the court {all right} all right, I shall come {disappear} dis-ap-pear´ from sight {grammar} gram´mar of the language {privilege} priv´i-lege to vote {beginning} be-gin´ning of the war {government} gov´ern-ment by the people {isosceles} i-sos´ce-les triangle {laboratory} lab´o-ra-to-ry of the chemist {finally} fi´nal-ly it endedLESSON 2
{coming} com´ing home {seize} seize the opportunity {similarly} sim´i-lar-ly made
صفحة 2
class="c11">{similar} sim´i-lar triangles {Parliament} Par´li-a-ment of England {occasion} oc-ca´sion for joy {description} de-scrip´tion of the place {writing} writ´ing with ink {development} de-vel´op-ment of muscle {homologous} ho-mol´o-gous figures {precede} pre-cede´ us down the street {recommend} rec-om-mend´ him for the work {whether} wheth´er we go or stay {coefficient} co-ef-fi´cient of the number {hypotenuse} hy-pot´e-nuse of a triangle {siege} siege of Troy {immediately} im-me´di-ate-ly after {already} al-read´y the sun is up {forty} for´ty dollars a month {fourth} fourth house on the street {develop} de-vel´op the Kodak film {together} to-geth´er at home {chord} chord of a circle {cord} cord of wood {village} vil´lage blacksmith
LESSON 3
{hypothesis} hy-poth´e-sis of a theorem {truly} tru´ly yours {accommodate} ac-com´mo-date your friends {preparation} prep-a-ra´tion for war {occurrence} oc-cur´rence of importance {quiet} qui´et as a mouse {quite} quite a different thing {villain} vil´lain in the play {vertical} ver´ti-cal lines {February} Feb´ru-a-ry twenty-second {angle} an´gle of a triangle {angel} an´gel in heaven {affect} af-fect´ steel by heating it {effect} ef-fect´ of heat on steel {balance} bal´ance the account {equation} e-qua´tion in algebra {professor} pro-fess´or of Latin {stopped} stopped by a policeman {lose} lose the money {loose} loose the dog's chain {losing} los´ing his grip {complement} com´ple-ment of an angle {compliment} com´pli-ment paid to the lady {corollary} cor´ol-la-ry of the theorem {which} which man was thatLESSON 4
{usually} u´su-al-ly he walks to school {oxygen} ox´y-gen in the air {surprise} sur-prise´ party {proceed} pro-ceed´ with the work {quit} quit the job {appearance} ap-pear´ance of the man {quadrilateral} quad-ri-lat´er-al figure {quantity} quan´ti-ty of sugar {received} re-ceived´ payment {theorem} the´o-rem in geometry {acknowledgment} ac-knowl´edg-ment of my letter {occurred} oc-curred´ to him suddenly {conscience} con´science troubled him {athletics} ath-let´ics in college {bisector} bi-sect´or of an angle {piece} piece of pie {peace} peace on earth {plain} plain features {plane} plane geometry {speech} speech in the Senate {parallelogram} par-al-lel´o-gram of forces {chauffeur} chauf-feur´ was reckless {describe} de-scribe´ his features {fulfil} ful-fil´ our promise {participle} par´ti-ci-ple of the verbLESSON 5
{tragedy} trag´e-dy of Macbeth {capital} cap´i-tal city of Texas {capitol} cap´i-tol building {committee} com-mit´tee meetings {perpendicular} per-pen-dic´u-lar lines {auxiliary} aux-il´i-a-ry verb {accept} ac-cept´ my thanks {except} ex-cept´ for this reason {odor} o´dor of tobacco {Mediterranean} Med-i-ter-ra´ne-an Sea
صفحة 3
{polygon} pol´y-gon of seven sides {superintendent} su-per-in-tend´ent of schools {supersede} su-per-sede´ the old laws by new {always} al´ways the same {hoping} hop´ing all is well {hopping} hop´ping on one foot {opposite} op´po-site side of the street {opposition} op-po-si´tion to the plan {rhombus} rhom´bus in geometry {parentheses} pa-ren´the-ses enclosed the phrase {straight} straight lines of soldiers {strait} strait of Bosporus {definite} def´i-nite number {gas} gas light is bright {prejudice} prej´u-dice against him
LESSON 6
{probably} prob´a-bly we shall go {respectively} re-spec´tive-ly equal to each other {respectfully} re-spect´ful-ly yours {disease} dis-ease´ caused by germs {decease} de-cease´ of a friend {equivalent} e-quiv´a-lent equations {height} height of the mountain {refer} re-fer´ you to him {referred} re-ferred´ to you {referring} re-fer´ring to your letter {soluble} sol´u-ble in water {calendar} cal´en-dar for next year {consul} con´sul at London {council} coun´cil of war {counsel} coun´sel is advice {control} con-trol´ of the business {led} led the way back {lead} lead is a soft metal {possession} pos-ses´sion of the island {receipt} re-ceipt´ for payment {simultaneous} sim-ul-ta´ne-ous equations {written} writ´ten lesson {benefit} ben´e-fit the health {ninety} nine´ty per cent {occasionally} oc-ca´sion-al-ly it rainsLESSON 7
{supplementary} sup-ple-men´ta-ry angles {Wednesday} Wednes´day morning {genitive} gen´i-tive case {independent} in-de-pend´ent country {misspelled} mis-spelled´ the words {sophomore} soph´o-more class {busy} bus´y day at school {meant} meant to do well {ledger} ledg´er accounts {polynomial} pol-y-no´mi-al of six terms {pursue} pur-sue´ the game {adjacent} ad-ja´cent angles {attract} at-tract´ his attention {Augustus} Au-gus´tus Cæsar {comparative} com-par´a-tive degree {difference} dif´fer-ence between two amounts {friend} friend of ours {frustum} frus´tum of the pyramid {prairie} prai´rie dogs {syntax} syn´tax of early Latin {whose} whose house is this {algebra} al´ge-bra is studied at school {ammonia} am-mo´ni-a for cleaning {embarrass} em-bar´rass us {nickel} nick´el plated wareLESSON 8
{precipitate} pre-cip´i-tate a panic {receivable} re-ceiv´a-ble accounts {studying} stud´y-ing the lesson {tariff} tar´iff bill of 1913 {nominative} nom´i-na-tive case {expenses} ex-pen´ses were paid {coincide} co-in-cide´ with his views {apparatus} ap-pa-ra´tus for the experiment {bicycle} bi´cy-cle riding {dining} din´ing with friends {decide} de-cide´ the question {disappointed} dis-ap-point´ed candidate {criticise} crit´i-cise the work {eligible} el´i-gi-ble to enter {hear} hear the music {here} here they come {intercept} in-ter-cept´ the
صفحة 4
letters {herb} herb for medicinal use {stationary} sta´tion-a-ry engine {stationery} sta´tion-er-y for correspondence {omitted} o-mit´ted the word {radical} rad´i-cal views {weird} weird tales by Poe {temperature} tem´per-a-ture of 90 degrees {equal} e´qual suffrage
LESSON 9
{eighth} eighth day of the month {syllable} syl´la-ble of a word {shepherd} shep´herd of the flock {quotient} quo´tient is the result in division {planned} planned a long trip {niece} niece and nephew {homogeneous} ho-mo-ge´ne-ous substances {governor} gov´ern-or of Michigan {equilateral} e-qui-lat´er-al triangle {attack} at-tack´ the city {attacked} at-tacked´ by the enemy {across} a-cross´ the ocean {crystal} crys´tal of quartz {cylinder} cyl´in-der of the engine {absence} ab´sence from school {diagonal} di-ag´o-nal of a square {miscellaneous} mis-cel-la´ne-ous assortment {interest} in´ter-est on the money {commercial} com-mer´cial traveler {cemetery} cem´e-ter-y lots {mischievous} mis´chie-vous puppy {resources} re-sour´ces of the bank {twelfth} twelfth hour {where} where has he gone {reference} ref´er-ence to the bookLESSON 10
{writer} writ´er of poetry {write} write clearly {right} right hand side {rite} rite of the church {prove} prove the theorem {axiom} ax´i-om in geometry {mortgage} mort´gage the farm {dependent} de-pend´ent clause {deceive} de-ceive´ the enemy {Caesar} Cæ´sar crossed the Rubicon {benefited} ben´e-fit-ed by exercise {trapezoid} trap´e-zoid drawn on the board {symmetrical} sym-met´ri-cal figure {sincerely} sin-cere´ly yours {rhythm} rhythm of music {source} source of the river {repetition} rep-e-ti´tion is monotonous {religious} re-lig´ious services {promissory} prom´is-so-ry notes {possess} pos-sess´ the money {weather} weath´er bureau {persuade} per-suade´ him to go {perhaps} per-haps´ I shall {oblige} ob-lige´ me by going {alcohol} al´co-hol lampLESSON 11
{sovereign} sov´er-eign of England {sovereignty} sov´er-eign-ty of our country {antecedent} an-te-ce´dent of the pronoun {allotment} al-lot´ment of the estate {allotting} al-lot´ting the Indian lands {treasurer} treas´ur-er of the society {advise} ad-vise´ him to go {advice} ad-vice´ is cheap {accusative} ac-cu´sa-tive case of a noun {dissolve} dis-solve´ the partnership {convenient} con-ven´ient place {experience} ex-pe´ri-ence is the best teacher {infinitive} in-fin´i-tive form of a verb {library} li´bra-ry books {occur} oc-cur´ to one {pleasant} pleas´ant occupation {potato} po-ta´to salad {practice} prac´tice makes perfect {procedure} pro-ce´dure in court {proportion} pro-por´tion of the money {sentence} sen´tence for life {supplement} sup´ple-ment of an angle {vacuum} vac´u-um cleaner {secretary}
صفحة 5
class="c33">sec´re-ta-ry of state {exaggerate} ex-ag´ger-ate the story
LESSON 12
{vegetable} veg´e-ta-ble garden {arc} arc of a circle {ark} ark built by Noah {analyze} an´a-lyze the sentence {different} dif´fer-ent sizes {crystallize} crys´tal-lize into snow {chief} chief man of the city {elimination} e-lim-i-na´tion of the unfit {foreign} for´eign countries {generally} gen´er-al-ly known {guard} guard the treasure {leisure} lei´sure moments {license} li´cense to run an automobile {rhomboid} rhom´boid figure in geometry {tyranny} tyr´an-ny of the conqueror {vertices} ver´ti-ces of the triangle {commission} com-mis´sion form of government {disappointment} dis-ap-point´ment is hard to bear {abbreviate} ab-bre´vi-ate the word {conscious} con´scious of her beauty {color} col´or of the flower {civilization} civ-i-li-za´tion of the Greeks {chlorophyll} chlo´ro-phyll of the plant {character} char´ac-ter of the man {cavalry} cav´al-ry regimentLESSON 13
{belief} be-lief´ of the Christian {enemies} en´e-mies of the nation {especially} es-pe´ci-al-ly good {existence} ex-ist´ence on earth {gauge} gauge the distance {honorable} hon´or-a-ble man {lieutenant} lieu-ten´ant of the army {literature} lit´er-a-ture and language {necessity} ne-ces´si-ty made him work {noticeable} no´tice-a-ble features {occupation} oc-cu-pa´tion of farming {Renaissance} Re-nais-sance´ Period {specimen} spec´i-men of my writing {successfully} suc-cess´ful-ly done {thorough} thor´ough work {through} through the window {threw} threw a stone {restaurant} res´tau-rant in the hotel {off} off the track {of} of good repute {opportunity} op-por-tun´i-ty to play {liability} li-a-bil´i-ty of the company {liabilities} li-a-bil´i-ties to meet {preceding} pre-ced´ing word {reciprocal} re-cip´ro-cal benefitsLESSON 14
{salable} sal´a-ble goods {salary} sal´a-ry received for work {sense} sense of hearing {shining} shin´ing star {succeed} suc-ceed´ in doing good {success} suc-cess´ in the work {secede} se-cede´ from the Union {Fahrenheit} Fah´ren-heit thermometer {address} ad-dress´ me in Chicago {college} col´lege athletics {circumstances} cir´cum-stan-ces alter cases {choose} choose the best {Henry} Hen´ry VIII of England {physiology} phys-i-ol´o-gy is interesting {apparent} ap-par´ent carelessness {alligators} al´li-ga-tors live in Florida {divisible} di-vi´si-ble numbers {declension} de-clen´sion of the noun {course} course of the river {coarse} coarse and fine salt {convenience} con-ven´ience of electric lights {clothes} clothes do not make the man {buried} bur´ied in the sand {boundary} bound´a-ry line of Texas {either} ei´ther man may goLESSON 15
{exceed} ex-ceed´ the speed limit {know} know how to spell {no} no boy
صفحة 6
should lie {goddess} god´dess of Liberty {medians} me´di-ans of a triangle {planning} plan´ning to build the house {phosphorus} phos´phor-us matches glow {sufficient} suf-fi´cient reason for {proportional} pro-por´tion-al quantities {recognize} rec´og-nize the fact {simile} sim´i-le and metaphor {sure} sure of himself {transferred} trans-ferred´ to another wagon {Tuesday} Tues´day is ironing day {efficiency} ef-fi´cien-cy of the machine {ecstasy} ec´sta-sy of delight {excel} ex-cel´ in feats of strength {enemy} en´e-my of our country {crystallization} crys-tal-li-za´tion of water {dropped} dropped from a balloon {criticism} crit´i-cism of his work {conceive} con-ceive´ of any reason {capillary} cap´il-la-ry attraction {cancel} can´cel the debt {besiege} be-siege´ the city
LESSON 16
{zinc} zinc is a useful metal {thoroughly} thor´ough-ly aroused {therefore} there´fore he may not go {rhyme} rhyme of the verses {really} re´al-ly fresh eggs {proprietor} pro-pri´e-tor of the hotel {practical} prac´ti-cal application {positive} pos´i-tive of the fact {juice} juice of the fruit {origin} or´i-gin of man {segment} seg´ment of a line {numerator} nu´mer-a-tor of a fraction {measurement} meas´ure-ment of the distance {integral} in´te-gral parts {exponent} ex-po´nent of the number {equiangular} e-qui-an´gu-lar triangles {equally} e´qual-ly divided {athlete} ath´lete in training {acceptance} ac-cept´ance of the position {achievement} a-chieve´ment of success {agreement} a-gree´ment between the two {arrangement} ar-range´ment of the furniture {divide} di-vide´ the apple {disappeared} dis-ap-peared´ in the distance {despair} de-spair´ of the condemnedLESSON 17
{descendants} de-scend´ants of Adam {declarative} de-clar´a-tive sentence {consciousness} con´scious-ness of power {conscientious} con-sci-en´tious in all things {Connecticut} Con-nect´i-cut River {committed} com-mit´ted a serious crime {chosen} cho´sen people {till} till the soil {barbarous} bar´ba-rous tribes of Africa {symmetry} sym´met-ry of a circle {specific} spe-cif´ic reasons {sieve} sieve for sifting flour {separation} sep-a-ra´tion of gold from silver {relieve} re-lieve´ the tired sentry {relief} re-lief´ expedition {recommendation} rec-om-men-da´tion for the place {Protestant} Prot´es-tant church {prophecy} proph´e-cy of Elijah {prophesy} proph´e-sy fair weather {pneumatic} pneu-mat´ic tire {pendulum} pen´du-lum of a clock {paid} paid in full {oscillation} os-cil-la´tion of a pendulum {medieval} me-di-e´val history {larvae} lar´væ of the flyLESSON 18
{indicative} in-dic´a-tive mode {imperative} im-per´a-tive manner {familiar} fa-mil´iar scenes {essential} es-sen´tial to life {aqueduct} aq´ue-duct for the city water {atmosphere} at´mos-phere of the earth {dyeing} dye´ing the cloth red {dying} dy´ing gladiator
صفحة 7
{disappearance} dis-ap-pear´ance of the snow {destroy} de-stroy´ the walls {desirable} de-sir´a-ble occupation {cupboard} cup´board was bare {custom} cus´tom of the country {compel} com-pel´ him to study {cereal} ce´re-al for breakfast {serial} se´ri-al story {ceiling} ceil´ing of the room {sealing} seal´ing the jar of fruit {cease} cease your noise {carrying} car´ry-ing the load {characteristics} char-ac-ter-is´tics of the man {buoyancy} buoy´an-cy of water {brief} brief tale of mystery {bisect} bi-sect´ the line {binomial} bi-no´mi-al theorem
LESSON 19
{before} be-fore´ we go to sleep {transitive} trans´i-tive verb {women} wom´en wish to vote {victuals} vict´uals to eat {very} ver´y often late {vengeance} venge´ance is mine {thermometer} ther-mom´e-ter registered 0° {synonym} syn´o-nym of the word {surely} sure´ly he will not {succeeded} suc-ceed´ed in finding work {siphon} si´phon of soda {scissors} scis´sors will cut {science} sci´ence of medicine {scene} scene of the tragedy {safety} safe´ty valve on the engine {rhetoric} rhet´o-ric is a useful study {resistance} re-sist´ance to opposition {representative} rep-re-sent´a-tive of our district {religion} re-lig´ion of the Christians {remember} re-mem´ber the Maine {proteids} pro´te-ids build muscle {preferred} pre-ferred´ to others {plebeian} ple-be´ian people of Rome {pistil} pis´til of a flower {pistol} pis´tol was loadedLESSON 20
{perimeter} pe-rim´e-ter of a polygon {omission} o-mis´sion of a letter {occurring} oc-cur´ring to us {neuter} neu´ter gender {neither} nei´ther one may go {monastery} mon´as-ter-y of the church {merchandise} mer´chan-dise to sell {lightning} light´ning conductor {legible} leg´i-ble handwriting {later} la´ter edition {laid} laid upon the table {knew} knew the meaning {new} new hat for Easter {heir} heir to the fortune {forcible} for´ci-ble arguments {excellent} ex´cel-lent reasons {excellence} ex´cel-lence of the food {equilibrium} e-qui-lib´ri-um was maintained {equidistant} e-qui-dis´tant from two points {accuracy} ac´cu-ra-cy of his addition {accession} ac-ces´sion of property {arithmetic} a-rith´me-tic and algebra {any} an´y more apples {many} man´y were called {annual} an´nu-al election of officersLESSON 21
{analytic} an-a-lyt´ic geometry {altar} al´tar in the church {alter} al´ter the conditions {advertise} ad´ver-tise in the magazines {heinous} hei´nous crime {nucleus} nu´cle-us of the collection {Niagara} Ni-ag´a-ra Falls {negotiability} ne-go-tia-bil´i-ty of the note {negotiate} ne-go´ti-ate a loan {negotiable} ne-go´tia-ble paper {mucilage} mu´ci-lage on the envelope {mischief} mis´chief afoot {metaphor} met´a-phor in rhetoric {mathematics} math-e-mat´ics requires study {manual}
صفحة 8
class="c33">man´u-al training {erect} e-rect´ position of a soldier {latter} lat´ter is opposed to former {jealous} jeal´ous of his rival {inventory} in´ven-to-ry of the goods {indelible} in-del´i-ble ink for marking linen {immigrant} im´mi-grant to America from Italy {emigrant} em´i-grant from America to Italy {imaginary} im-ag´i-na-ry ills {hygiene} hy´gi-ene and health {having} hav´ing a good time