How to spell reserve

hear itre·serve/rɪ'zɜrv/verbSilent and tricky

What it means: To arrange for a seat or table to be kept for your use.

In a sentence: We can reserve a table for dinner tonight.

The part people get wrong

Often misspelled as reseve or resreve.

Same family: reservation, reserved, reserving, service, server. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Reserve” comes from Latin *reservare*, meaning “to keep back” or “save.” This idea of keeping something back for later is still in the modern meaning when you reserve a seat, a room, or extra money.

Patterns it uses: Prefixes keep every letter

Try spelling it

You will hear the word and a sentence. Type it and press Enter. Then four more words from the same level, so you know where you stand.

Words like this

return · report · doorknob · twenty-first · dirty · pliers · swore · unicorn

Spelling.School is a spaced-repetition spelling practice: ten minutes a day, every word spoken aloud, every miss explained, and every word coming back just before you would forget it. Try five words without signing up.