How to spell balance

hear itbal·ance/'bæləns/nounSilent and tricky

What it means: The ability to stay upright and steady without falling.

In a sentence: The tightrope walker needs good balance to stay on the rope.

The part people get wrong

Watch for an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear. Often misspelled as balence or ballance.

Same family: balanced, balancing, imbalanced, equilibrium, stability. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Balance” comes from the Latin phrase *bilanx*, meaning “having two pans,” originally referring to a scale with two dishes. Watchmakers later used the same word for the oscillating wheel that “weighs out” equal units of time.

Patterns it uses: The unstressed vowel (schwa)

Try spelling it

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