How to spell autumn

hear itau·tumn/'ɔtəm/nounLong vowels

What it means: The season when leaves change color.

In a sentence: Leaves change colors in autumn.

The part people get wrong

Watch for a silent n, and an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear. Often misspelled as autum or atutmn.

Same family: autumnal, fall, season, harvest, late-autumn. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: Autumn comes from Latin 'autumnus', possibly related to a word meaning 'to increase,' because it is the time of harvest when crops are plentiful. In American English, people often use the word 'fall' instead of 'autumn,' referring to the falling leaves.

Patterns it uses: The unstressed vowel (schwa)

Try spelling it

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