How to spell service

hear itser·vice/'sɜrvɪs/nounLong vowels

What it means: A means of providing assistance.

In a sentence: The mail carrier provides an important service to deliver our letters.

The part people get wrong

Watch for an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear. Often misspelled as servise or serivce.

Same family: servicing, serviced, breeding, mate, stud. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: Service comes from Old French and Latin words meaning ‘to serve’ or ‘to be a servant.’ Its specialized breeding sense developed in agricultural contexts, where a male animal’s ‘service’ referred to mating with females in a herd or flock.

Patterns it uses: The unstressed vowel (schwa)

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.

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