How to spell discipline

hear itdis·ci·pline/'dɪsəplɪn/nounSilent and tricky

What it means: Training to improve behavior.

In a sentence: The coach teaches discipline to help us play better soccer.

The part people get wrong

Watch for an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear. Often misspelled as disciplin or disipline.

Same family: interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, academic-discipline, field, subject. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Discipline” comes from the Latin word “disciplina,” meaning teaching or instruction, which is also related to “discipulus,” meaning student or disciple. Over time, its meaning expanded from ‘instruction’ to a specific field of study, like the discipline of biology or history.

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

account · object · won't · visual · align · sign · psalm · moisten

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.