How to spell policy

hear itpol·i·cy/'pɑlɪsi/nounLong vowels

What it means: A set of rules or ideas used as a guide.

In a sentence: The school has a policy about wearing uniforms.

The part people get wrong

Watch for an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear. Often misspelled as polocy or pollicy.

Same family: policies, policyholder, insurance-policy, politics, political. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: Policy comes from Middle French ‘police’, which meant ‘government’ or ‘civil administration’, and ultimately from Greek ‘polis’, meaning ‘city’ or ‘state’. Over time, its meaning narrowed in English to rules or plans of action, and also to a written insurance contract.

Patterns it uses: The unstressed vowel (schwa)

Try spelling it

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Words like this

phenomenon · knowledge · phobia · additional · never · little · answer · done

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