Spelling.School · How to spell

How to spell safety

hear itsafe·ty/'seɪfti/nounLong vowels

What it means: The condition of being protected from danger or harm.

In a sentence: Wearing a helmet is an important part of bike safety.

The part people get wrong

Watch for an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear. Often misspelled as saftey or safty.

Same family: safe, safely, unsafe, safeguard, safety-feature. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: The word “safety” comes from the Old French word “saufte,” meaning security or freedom from danger, which is related to the Latin word “salvus,” meaning unhurt or well. The spelling with “-ty” is the same ending used in many abstract nouns like “beauty” and “purity.”

Patterns it uses: The unstressed vowel (schwa)

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