Most Frequently Misspelled Words in Medicine

A
accommodation – note the 2 c’s and 2 m’s
afferent vs efferent
ascites (sounds like uh-sight-ees)
aphagia vs aphasia
asymmetry and symmetry
auscultation (sounds like oss-cull-tashun)

B
basilar (not basalar – bay-sill-urh)
barbiturates (sounds like bar-bit-your-uhts)
branchial vs brachial

C
callus (noun) and callous (adjective) note the “ous” to make it an adjective
catheterization – sounds just like it looks
chalazion (sounds like kuh-laz-ee-on)
circumferential (adverb=circumferentially)
chlamydia (sounds like kluh-mid-ee-uh – is a bacterial family member)
cord gets mixed up a lot with chord, cor (heart) and core
cor (heart) with core (like in an apple, or the center of)

D
debridement (sounds like dee-breed-ment or mont)
dependent vs dependant
diaphragm (not diaphram)
dyspareunia (sounds like diss-pair-ee-oo-knee-uh)

E
enuresis vs anuresis
elicit vs illicit
epididymis (epee-did-ee-muss)
erythematosus (arith-uh-mutt-oss-is)
exacerbated vs exasperated

G
gamma (note 2 m’s) – gamma globulin is two words
gas, gases, gassy – gaseous, etc.

I
ileum vs ilium – – one is the gut & the other bone)
insufflate (in-sue-flate)

M
malacia (muhl-ace-ee-uh) not malasia
mucus (noun) mucous (adjective) and occasionally mucousy
myxedema (mix-id-eema)

O
occur – occurring – occurrence
ophthalmology (most often leave the first “h” out, and occasionally the “l” – this is not the correct spelling=opthmology)

P
paroxysmal (pair-ox-is-muhl)
perfusion vs profusion
perineal vs peroneal
persistent (not persistant)
petechia (peh-teek-ee-uh) or the plural petechiae (peh-teek-ee-eye)
plane vs plain
pleurisy (not pleuricy or pleuracy – plure-iss-see)
polyposis (polly-poe-sis)
prostate vs prostrate
pruritis vs pruritus (even the experts get this one wrong; it is pruritus)
pterygium (tuhr-idg-ee-um)

R
regime vs regimen

S
sagittal (not saggital – sadg-it-tuhl)
scalene (from scalenus) not scaline
scarring (not scaring)
seborrheic (sub-ore-ee-ick)
serotonin (sirro-tone-in)
senile (and similar usage, arcus senilis not sinilis)
shotty lymph nodes (not shoddy)
suppuration (supp-ure-ashun)

T
tonsil (not tonsill, but tonsillectomy not tonsilectomy)
trachea – trachlear, and combined words with same, trache/o

V
vesicle (and similar words ending in –cle – when in an adjective form are vesical –the cle is changed to cal – e.g., vesical urinary system or combined = vesicourinary)

X
xerosis (not zerosis – zear-oh-sis)