How to spell fluoride

hear itflu·o·ride/'fluə,raɪd/nounSchwa and roots

What it means: A compound that helps strengthen teeth.

In a sentence: "Brush your teeth with toothpaste that has fluoride for strong teeth."

The part people get wrong

Often misspelled as flouride or fluorid.

Same family: fluoridation, fluoridate, defluoridation, fluorosis, toothpaste. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Fluoride” comes from the element name “fluorine,” which itself comes from the Latin word *fluere*, meaning “to flow,” because the mineral fluorspar was used as a flux to help metals flow during smelting. The chemical suffix “-ide” is commonly used for negatively charged ions, like chloride and oxide.

Patterns it uses: Drop the e before a suffix?

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Words like this

fluorescent · advise · cite · ruinous · refusal

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