How to spell official

hear itof·fi·cial/ə'fɪʃəl/adjectiveRules and real life

What it means: Holding a position of authority; formal and recognized.

In a sentence: The principal is the official leader of our school.

The part people get wrong

Watch for double f, and an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear. Often misspelled as offical or oficial.

Same family: office, officially, officer, officialdom, unofficial. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Official” comes from the Latin word *officium*, meaning “service” or “duty,” through Old French *oficial*. It originally described a person with a duty in an office and later came to describe things that are formal or authorized.

Patterns it uses: The unstressed vowel (schwa)

Try spelling it

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Words like this

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