Spelling.School · How to spell

How to spell ambitious

What it means: Having a strong desire for success.

In a sentence: The ambitious cat wanted to climb the tallest tree in the garden. ▶

The part people get wrong

Watch for an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear. Often misspelled as ambicious or ambitous.

How learners on Spelling.School have misspelled it: zzz

Same family: ambitiousness, ambitiously, driven, goal-oriented, aspiration. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Ambitious” comes from the Latin word “ambitio,” which originally meant going around to ask for votes in an election. Over time it shifted from the idea of seeking public favor to the broader sense of strongly wanting success or achievement.

Patterns it uses: The unstressed vowel (schwa)

Try spelling it

You will hear the word and a sentence. Type it and press Enter. Then four more words from the same level, so you know where you stand.

Words like this

ingenious · envious · industrious · mysterious · generous · religious · precious · glorious

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