How to spell apocalypse
apocalypse
Not apocolypse or apocalipse.
The trap
The third vowel of apocalypse is an A, a-poc-a-lypse, and apocolypse repeats the O before it. Unstressed, that A flattens to a murmur, and the O next door is the nearest guess.
An unstressed vowel flattens to the same sound whatever letter spells it, so the ear cannot tell them apart. A relative that stresses the syllable gives the letter back.
Greek spelling: y for the i sound between consonants
What it means
n. a great revelation or catastrophic event
Other words with this trap
Background
The conventions each language layer left in English spelling, with their sources, are on where English spelling comes from.
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Play today's Daily FiveSpellingIQ is a skill rating for spelling ability, not a clinical or psychometric IQ measure. American English is canonical; common variants are accepted.