Dilemna vs Dilemma

[speckledhen]

I know there are alternate spellings for words like "favorite" and "favourite", but those don't throw in a letter that would throw off the pronunciation. If I had ever seen the word "dilemna", I would have just passed it off as a typo.

 

[sourland]

Sorry, no "N" in dilemma.

edited to add: This is atrue dilemna.

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
I understand that, but what intrigues me is that its usage has been so commonplace and established for decades that there must be more to the story than millions of educated people just mistakingly adding an "n" to a word where it wouldn't make sense anyway. I'm sure there are other words that I commonly misspell that I can shrug off, but as other articles have noted this one misspelling is so ingrained in my nature (and others') that I find the truth to be almost incredulous.

It's interesting to note that it is also commonly misspelled in the French language as "dilemne" vs "dilemme", for no apparent reason either.

 

[annaraven]

It may simply be confusing it with words like calumny, autumn, damnation, alumni, which have the "mn" construction. The original greek goes back to lemma - so no n there either.

 

[Imp]

Boy, What a kwandree?

Imp-

 

[booker81]

Of course, you can then get into things like "irregardless", "alot", "unthaw" etc

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
hukt on foniks werks fer mee

 

[Mac in Wisco]

Quote:
Yet educated people know those to be poor grammar. I find the quandary of the word "dilemna" to be of a different character.

Merriam-Webster defines a "quandary" as "a practical dilemma".

 

[gryeyes]

Dd
Quote:
I did, until I tried to prove it to someone and got egg on my face. When the heck did THAT change? I remember learning how to spell it by Silently, mentally enunciating that "n," well over 40 years ago.

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

Quote:
hukt on foniks werks fer mee