How to spell credentials

hear it/krʌ'dɛnʃʌlz/nounSchwa and roots

What it means: Documents proving a person's qualifications or identity.

In a sentence: The teacher showed her credentials to the principal.

The part people get wrong

Watch for an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear. Often misspelled as credencials or credintials.

Same family: credential, accredit, accreditation, qualification, certificate. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Credentials” comes from the Medieval Latin word *credentialis*, related to *credere*, meaning “to believe” or “to trust.” The idea is that your credentials are documents that help others believe and trust that you really have the skills or status you claim.

Patterns it uses: The unstressed vowel (schwa)

Try spelling it

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