How to spell additional

hear itad·di·tion·al/ə'dɪʃənəl/adjectiveLong vowels

What it means: Extra or more than what is already there.

In a sentence: I need additional cookies for the party.

The part people get wrong

Watch for double d, and an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear. Often misspelled as aditional or additonal.

Same family: add, added, adding, additionality, additive. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Additional” comes from the Latin root “addere,” meaning “to give to” or “to join to.” It entered English through Medieval Latin and French, and is closely related to the math word “addition,” both carrying the idea of “something extra that is added.”

Patterns it uses: The unstressed vowel (schwa)

Try spelling it

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