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I'd like to link this entry and 'misspelled'. Should that be under a 'See also' or 'Synonyms' or 'Alternative spellings'? -- General Wesc 02:35, 16 April 2006 (UTC)

I'd think 'Alternative spellings' and 'Synonyms' would be correct, perhaps even a 'Usage notes' section. --Connel MacKenzie T C 04:05, 16 April 2006 (UTC)


Hopiakuta 16:12, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

Usage Notes[edit]

"Uncommon in England, common (or preferred) elsewhere."

Uncommon in England!? I sincerely doubt it. [1] note 'misspelt' as a UK variant, as does [2]. The American dictionary Merriam-Webster doesn't list it at all. I and every Englishman I know uses 'misspelt' over 'misspelled'. It certainly is not uncommon in England. Unless this sentence is trying to imply that both 'misspelt' and 'misspelled' are seldom used here. ¬.¬

This previously said,

"Common mainly in parts of [Canada] and especially in [Commonwealth English] speaking nations."

(forgiving the use of templates that apparently no longer exist...)

Propose note to be rewritten to this effect? --Mister Macbeth 19:54, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

That wording implies that it is uncommon in the US, which is positively not true now. (I'm not exactly "young" by Wiktionary standards. Here in America, I've always heard "misspelt" and "misspelled" used interchangably.) --Connel MacKenzie 20:01, 12 December 2006 (UTC)

The current wording implies, nay, states outright, that it is uncommon in England, which is utter nonsense also, so it needs to be reworded to some effect. --Mister Macbeth 19:50, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

How about 'Common in Commonwealth English speaking nations and gaining use elsewhere.'? --Mister Macbeth 17:11, 15 December 2006 (UTC)
Demonstrably untrue. --Connel MacKenzie 15:44, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

I removed the note, because 1) this discussion is pretty confused, 2) zero information is better than misleading information, and 3) that note didn't provide much information anyway--if a word is commonly used everywhere, what's the point of a usage note? For what it's worth, I don't recall ever seeing misspelt in edited American English. JackLumber 21:53, 29 August 2007 (UTC) In British English, both misspelled and misspelt are common (24 and 19 instances in the BNC, respectively). According to Google,

In the UK, misspelled is weakly preferred to misspelt
In Australia, misspelt is strongly preferred to misspelled
In Canada, misspelled is strongly preferred to misspelt
In the US, misspelled is strongly preferred to misspelt (gov, edu, mil)

JackLumber 22:09, 29 August 2007 (UTC)

Hmmm. This seems to support that, even though my personal experience does not. --Connel MacKenzie 22:24, 29 August 2007 (UTC)