How to spell maintenance
maintenance
Maintenance is spelled M-A-I-N-T-E-N-A-N-C-E.
Not maintenence or maintainance.
Why is maintenance easy to misspell?
The word maintenance ends -ance, and maintenence spells that ending by ear. Unstressed, -ance and -ence are one sound, and English has no maintenant to settle it, so the A is learned with the word. So is the missing I: maintainance is maintain with -ance added, but the longer word is mainten-ance.
-ance and -ence flatten to the same sound in an unstressed syllable, so the ear cannot settle it. A relative often can: -ant goes with -ance and -ent with -ence (important, importance).
What does maintenance mean?
noun. The process of keeping something in good condition.
Which other words set the same trap?
Which spelling lists include maintenance?
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Learn to spell maintenanceSpellingIQ is a skill rating for spelling ability, not a clinical or psychometric IQ measure. American English is canonical; common variants are accepted.