Skip to content

Hardest Words To Spell

By Words Detail Published 4 Nov 2022 Updated 15 Apr 2024 6 min read
Entry typeLanguage reference
Last updated15 Apr 2024
EditorWords Detail

List of English hardest words to spell, you can learn correct pronunciation and definition of these words to improve your English vocabulary.

  • astringent
  • substance that shrinks

  • detumescence
  • diminishing or lessening of swelling

  • raconteur
  • person who tells anecdotes

  • excoriation
  • severe criticism

  • ebullience
  • exuberance outburst of feeling

  • peccadillo
  • small sin small weakness in one’s character

  • protracted
  • prolonged

  • contumacious
  • insubordinate rebellious

  • palpability
  • can be felt touched understood

  • disseminate
  • distribute (esp. ideas)

  • blandishment
  • flattery coaxing

  • salubrious
  • healthful

  • muffler
  • cloth worn round the neck/silencer

  • provisional
  • of the present time only

  • unscathed
  • unharmed unhurt

  • peripatetic
  • wandering

  • effrontery
  • boldness impudence arrogance

  • elaborate
  • worked out with much care in great detail

  • presumption
  • arrogance

  • inadvertent
  • not paying proper attention

  • misanthrope
  • person who hates mankind

  • reprobate
  • person hardened in sin one devoid of decency

  • petrous
  • like a rock hard stony

  • exoneration
  • set smb clear free (e.g.. from blame)

  • incongruous
  • out of place not in harmony or agreement

  • euthanasia
  • easy and painless death

  • apartheid
  • brutal racial discrimination

  • grandiloquent
  • using pompous words

  • equipoise
  • equal distribution of weight equilibrium

  • contentious
  • argumentative pugnacious combative quarrelsome

  • ostracism
  • shut out from society refuse to meet talk

  • temperate
  • showing self-control

  • eloquence
  • fluent speaking skillful use of language

  • indelible
  • that cannot be rubbed out

  • turpitude
  • wickedness shamefulness

  • puissance
  • strength

  • cognizant
  • being fully aware of

  • garrulity
  • talkativeness

  • valorous
  • brave

  • halcyon
  • calm and peaceful

  • demagogue
  • person appealing not to reasons

  • proliferate
  • grow reproduce by rapid multification

  • connotation
  • suggestion in addition to

  • resuscitation
  • coming back to consciousness

  • lachrymose
  • causing tears tearful

  • dexterity
  • skill (esp. in handling)

  • unencumbered
  • easy-going trifle

  • imbroglio
  • complicated and embarrassing situation

  • ostentation
  • display to obtain admiration or envy

  • obdurate
  • hardened and unrepenting stubborn inflexible

  • belabor
  • beat hard

  • ingenuous
  • naive young artless frank honest sincere

  • predilection
  • special liking mental preference

  • indigence
  • poverty

  • mellifluous
  • sweetly flowing

  • collusion
  • secret agreement for a deceitful purpose

  • vivacious
  • lively high-spirited

  • laudatory
  • expressing or giving praise

  • convoluted
  • complicated coiled twisted

  • enunciate
  • pronounce (words)/express a theory

  • irresolute
  • hesitating undecided

  • imperious
  • commanding haughty arrogant

  • connoisseur
  • a person with good judgement (e.g.. in art)

  • admonitory
  • containing warning

  • disheveled
  • untidy

  • labyrinthine
  • to entangle the state of affairs

  • coalescing
  • coming together and uniting into one substance

  • turbulence
  • being uncontrolled violent

  • preponderance
  • greatness in number strength weight

  • apotheosis
  • deification glorification to godliness

  • sullied
  • to be stained or discredited

  • vitiate
  • lower the quality weaken the strength

  • alcove
  • recess/partially enclosed place

  • inscrutable
  • incapable of being discovered or understood

  • idolatry
  • excessive admiration of

  • embellish
  • make beautiful

  • enduring
  • lasting

  • divulge
  • make known smth secret

  • maladroit
  • tactless clumsy

  • imperviousness
  • haughty arrogant commanding

  • undulate
  • to move in wavelike fashion fluctuate

  • picaresque
  • involving clever rogues or adventurers

  • soporific
  • producing sleep

  • turquoise
  • greenish-blue precious stone

  • amortize
  • end (a debt) by setting aside money

  • quotidian
  • banal everyday

  • flaunting
  • show off complacently

  • desuetude
  • cessation of use disuse

  • antidote
  • medicine used against a poison or a disease

  • ostensible
  • seeming appearing as such professed

  • antithetical
  • direct opposing

  • chicanery
  • legal trickery/false argument

  • buoyant
  • able to float light-hearted

  • exuberance
  • state of growing vigorously being full of life

  • sequence
  • succession connected line of

  • curriculum
  • course of study

  • desultory
  • aimless haphazard digressing at random

  • propinquity
  • nearness in time or place affinity of nature

  • sagacious
  • having sound judgment perceptive wise like a sage

  • belligerent
  • (person nation) waging war

  • propagation
  • increasing the number spreading extending

  • heterogeneous
  • made up of different kinds

  • petrified
  • taken away power (to think feel act)

  • penchant
  • strong inclination a liking

  • deviance
  • being different in moral standards (from normal)

  • inchoate
  • not yet fully formed rudimentary elementary

  • quiescent
  • at rest dormant torpid

  • corporeal
  • physical of or for the body

  • indigenous
  • native

  • pusillanimous
  • cowardly craven

  • salutary
  • remedial wholesome causing improvement

  • piquant
  • agreeably pungent stimulating

  • incorrigibility
  • cannot be cured or corrected

  • opprobrious
  • showing scorn or reproach

  • unfeigned
  • not pretended sincere

  • felicitous
  • apt suitably expressed well chosen apropos

  • epicurean
  • devoted to pleasure (sensuous enjoyment)

  • suppress
  • prevent from being known put an end to

  • idiosyncrasy
  • personal mannerism

  • interdict
  • prohibit forbid

  • aspersion
  • slander

  • constrict
  • make tight or smaller

  • imperative
  • urgent essential

  • timorous
  • fearful timid afraid

  • transgress
  • break go beyond (a limit)

  • vindictive
  • having a desire to revenge

  • defiance
  • open disobedience or resistance

  • palpitate
  • tremble beat rapidly and irregularly

  • proscribe
  • denounce as dangerous

  • philistine
  • a smug ignorant person one who lacks knowledge

  • harangue
  • a long passionate speech

  • trickle
  • flow in drops

  • propitious
  • auspicious presenting favorable circumstances

  • atonement
  • repayment death of Jesus

  • indolence
  • laziness

  • palatial
  • magnificent

  • frenetic
  • frantic frenzied

  • ineptitude
  • quality of being unskillful

  • surfeit
  • satiate feed to fulness or to excess

  • consummate
  • perfect/make perfect/complete

  • eschew
  • avoid

  • castigate
  • to chastise correct by punishing

  • deluge
  • great flood heavy rush of water

  • moderation
  • quality of being limited not extreme

  • renovate
  • restore smth to better condition

  • opaqueness
  • dullness/not allowing light to pass through

  • cumbersome
  • burdensome heavy and awkward to carry

  • countervail
  • counterbalance

  • exhaustive
  • complete thorough

  • squalid
  • foul filthy

  • procrastination
  • keeping on putting off

  • approbation
  • approval

  • audacious
  • daring foolishly bold impudent

  • sophistry
  • fallacious reasoning faulty logic

  • recondite
  • little known abstruse

  • reproach
  • scold upbraid

  • tadpole
  • form of a frog when it leaves the egg

  • mendacity
  • dishonesty

  • dislodge
  • move force from the place occupied

  • indistinct
  • not easily heard seen clearly marked

  • indomitable
  • not easily discouraged or subdued

  • punctilious
  • precise paying attention to trivialities

  • expiation
  • ending expiring

  • accretion
  • the growing of separate things into one

  • prudence
  • careful forethought

  • trifling
  • unimportant

  • supersede
  • take the place of

  • spurious
  • FALSE counterfeit

  • pellucid
  • transparent easy to understand

  • aggravate
  • make worse irritate

  • nostrum
  • a quack remedy an untested cure

  • judicious
  • sound in judgment wise

  • vacillation
  • being uncertain hesitating

  • doggerel
  • trivial poorly constructed verse

  • pugnacious
  • fond of in the habit of fighting

  • preclude
  • prevent make impossible

  • matriculation
  • be admitted enter a university as a student

  • ineluctable
  • certain inevitable

  • impervious
  • not allowing to pass through (of materials)

  • repulsive
  • causing a feeling of disgust

  • irrevocable
  • final and unalterable

  • underbid
  • make a lower bid then smb else

  • conviction
  • convincing firm belief

  • susceptibility
  • sensitiveness

  • arboreal
  • of connected with trees

  • contiguous
  • touching neighboring near

  • loquacious
  • talkative garrulous

  • ineffable
  • to great to be described in words

  • chastisement
  • punishment

  • quiescence
  • state of being passive/motionless

  • nugatory
  • trifling/worthless

  • dawdler
  • person who is slow waste of time

  • clientele
  • customers

  • splenetic
  • bad-tempered irritable

  • vigorous
  • strong energetic

  • impugned
  • challenged to be doubted

  • expostulate
  • argue earnestly to dissuade correct or protest

  • forbearance
  • patience willingness to wait

  • divergence
  • getting farther apart from a point

  • auspicious
  • favorable successful prosperous

  • extenuate
  • cause (an offence) to seem less serious

  • foolproof
  • incapable of failure or error

  • irascible
  • irritable easily angered

  • denouement
  • an outcome or solution the unraveling of a plot

  • perfunctory
  • done as a duty without care

  • complaisance
  • tending to comply obliging willingness to please

  • gregarious
  • living in societies liking the company

  • nonchalant
  • not having interest

  • arabesque
  • a complex ornate design

  • aberration
  • straying away from what is normal

  • extinguish
  • end the existence of/wipe or put out

  • trenchant
  • forceful effective vigorous extremely perceptive incisive

  • obstreperous
  • noisy loud

  • intransigent
  • uncompromising

  • ubiquitous
  • present everywhere

  • tautology
  • a repetition a redundancy

  • vituperate
  • curse abuse in words

  • conspicuous
  • easily seen remarkable

  • fulmination
  • bitter protest

  • fragrant
  • sweet-smelling

  • obfuscate
  • to darken make obscure muddle

  • assiduous
  • diligent hard-working sedulous

  • pernicious
  • harmful injurious

  • aversion
  • strong dislike

  • recidivism
  • relapse into antisocial or criminal behavior

  • perspicacity
  • quick judging and understanding

  • castigation
  • severe punishment

  • stigmatize
  • describe smb scornfully

  • exorbitant
  • much too high or great

  • truculence
  • aggressiveness ferocity

  • anguish
  • severe suffering

  • rancorous
  • feeling bitterness spitefulness

  • itinerate
  • to travel from place to place to peregrinate

  • ambidextrous
  • able to use the left hand or the right equally well

  • detraction
  • slandering verbal attack aspersion

  • peremptory
  • urgent imperative unchallengeable ending debate

  • apprehensive
  • anxious or fearful that something bad

  • immaculate
  • pure faultless

  • stipulate
  • state or put forward as a necessary condition

  • poignant
  • deeply moving keen

  • sedulous
  • persevering

  • entangle
  • put into difficulties

  • inveterate
  • deep-rooted. long-established

  • effluvia
  • outflow in a stream of particles a noxious odor or vapor

  • edacious
  • voracious devouring

  • auxiliary
  • helping supporting

  • superimpose
  • put smth on the top

  • whimsical
  • full of odd and fanciful ideas

  • substantiation
  • giving facts to support (statement)

  • figurehead
  • carved image on the prow of a ship

  • abdication
  • giving up control authority

  • fallacious
  • based on error

  • imprecation
  • an invocation of evil a curse

  • taciturn
  • untalkative silent

  • ameliorate
  • improve make better

  • suffocate
  • cause or have difficulty in breathing

  • exculpate
  • to clear from a charge of guilt

  • counterfeit
  • forgery

  • dissemble
  • speak or behave so as to hide smth (in mind)

  • noxious
  • harmful

  • prosaic
  • everyday mundane commonplace trite pedestrian

  • lassitude
  • weariness tiredness

  • expedient
  • likely to be useful for a purpose

  • negligent
  • taking too little care

  • parsimonious
  • too economical miserly

  • resilience
  • quality of quickly recovering the original shape

  • epitome
  • brief summary representative example a typical model

  • reciprocity
  • granting of privileges in return for similar

  • fidelity
  • loyalty accuracy

  • stentorian
  • extremely loud and powerful

  • vanquish
  • conquer

  • machination
  • plot scheme (esp. evil)

  • chastened
  • corrected punished

  • profligate
  • wasteful prodigal licentious extravagant

  • bellicose
  • belligerent pugnacious warlike

  • remonstrate
  • to protest object

  • salacious
  • obscene

  • equivocate
  • try to deceive by equivocal language

  • ponderous
  • heavy bulky dull

  • prevaricate
  • to equivocate to stray from the truth

  • curmudgeon
  • bad-tempered person

  • conciliatory
  • reconciling soothing comforting mollifying

  • indefatigability
  • not easily exhaustible tirelessness

  • jocular
  • meant as a joke

  • impromptu
  • without preparation

  • encumbrance
  • burden things that get on the way of

  • rapacious
  • greedy (esp for money)

  • propitiatory
  • conciliatory appeasing mitigating

  • credulity
  • too great a readiness to believe things

  • sententious
  • short and pithy full of maxims/proverbs

  • sobriety
  • quality or condition of being sober

  • incumbents
  • official duties

  • boisterous
  • loud noisy rough lacking restraint

  • untoward
  • unfortunate inconvenient

  • tarnished
  • lost brightness

  • correlate
  • have a mutual relation

  • benevolence
  • wish or activity in doing good

  • dissolution
  • disintegration looseness in morals

  • incursion
  • a raid a sudden attack

  • penitent
  • feeling or showing regret

Written by

Words Detail

V Y researches, writes and reviews language-reference content for WordsDetail, with a focus on making English vocabulary and usage easier to understand in practical contexts. Her work includes checking definitions, word classifications, spelling patterns, regional usage and examples against established dictionaries and authoritative language references where appropriate. She also reviews older WordsDetail articles for accuracy, clarity and usefulness as part of the site’s ongoing editorial updates.

About the editor