How to spell original

hear ito·rig·i·nal/ə'rɪdʒənəl/adjectiveSilent and tricky

What it means: Not copied; fresh and unique.

In a sentence: The artist drew an original picture of a rainbow.

The part people get wrong

Watch for an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear. Often misspelled as orginal or orignal.

Same family: originate, originally, originality, originator, source. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Original” comes from the Latin word *origo* (genitive *originis*), meaning “beginning” or “source.” It first meant “the first form or source of something” in English before also gaining the sense of being new or creative.

Patterns it uses: The unstressed vowel (schwa)

Try spelling it

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