How to spell malicious
malicious
Malicious is spelled M-A-L-I-C-I-O-U-S.
Not malisious or malitious.
Why is malicious easy to misspell?
The word malicious ends -cious, and the misspelling malisious writes an S. Malice has the same C, said like an S before the E, and malicious keeps it.
That spelling matches the sound exactly, which is why it looked right. English keeps letters long after the sound has moved on, so the conventional spelling is often the one that looks least like it sounds.
Latin spelling: ous for the us sound
What does malicious mean?
adjective. Characterized by malice; intending or intended to do harm.
Which other words set the same trap?
Where does English spelling come from?
The conventions each language layer left in English spelling, with their sources, are on where English spelling comes from.
Try it on real words
Five words, read aloud and typed from memory with autocorrect off. About a minute, no signup.
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.