How to spell purpose

hear itpur·pose/'pɜrpəs/nounSilent and tricky

What it means: The reason for doing something.

In a sentence: The purpose of the pencil is to help us write stories.

The part people get wrong

Often misspelled as purpuse or porpose.

Same family: purposed, purposing, purposely, purposeful, purposefully. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: English 'purpose' comes from Old French 'purpos' or 'porpos', meaning 'intention' or 'aim', which in turn is related to Latin words for 'putting forth' or 'proposing.' Over time, English began using the same spelling as both a noun (reason, aim) and a verb (to decide or intend).

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Words like this

receive · surely · structure · he's · he'd · rhyme · gauge · they've

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