How to spell bustle

hear itbus·tle/'bəsəl/nounSilent and tricky

What it means: A rapid active commotion.

In a sentence: The busy city streets are full of hustle and bustle.

The part people get wrong

Watch for an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear. Often misspelled as bustel or busel.

Same family: bustling, bustled, bustlingly, hustle, commotion. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Bustle” likely comes from older words meaning ‘to move noisily’ and appeared in English around the 16th century. Interestingly, in fashion history, a different “bustle” also referred to a padded framework worn under the back of a woman’s skirt in the 1800s to make it stick out.

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

gristle · thistle · i'll · article · heavy · postage · bristle · fasten

Spelling.School is a spaced-repetition spelling practice: ten minutes a day, every word spoken aloud, every miss explained, and every word coming back just before you would forget it. Try five words without signing up.