One of my least proud Facebook moments was being banned from a paranormal interest page because I told a guy if he couldn't spell the word 'paranormal,' he should probably stop calling himself an expert in the field...
Okay, so I admit that was a little mean of me, but the guy really did have it coming, lol. And it wasn't just a once or twice typo either...it was consistent. But still...mean. Today's blog post, however is NOT meant to be mean. Rather, its meant to be a light-hearted look at some of the most commonly misspelled words that I personally see while perusing around paranormal related sites and social media. It might also be a little educational!
1.
Paranormal--I have to start with this one since its the word that inspired this post to begin with! Paranormal, which in the most basic of definitions means 'beyond the range of normal experience or scientific explanation' can sometimes be slaughtered when written out. I've personally made the typo 'parnanormal' a few times, but have luckily caught it before publishing!
2.
Apparition--If you see an 'apparition,' then you've seen the ghost or ghost-like image of a person. I see this commonly misspelled as 'apperition,' but there are a few creative alternatives as well.
3.
Cemetery--We all know what a cemetery is, but it seems like very few social media users know how to properly spell it, most often replacing the proper spelling with 'cemetary.' BONUS INFO: Do you the difference between a cemetery and a graveyard? 'Graveyard' is a term to denote a church burial ground, while cemetery is more secular.
4.
Psychic--Again, if you claim to BE psychic or have psychic abilities, you might want to learn how to spell it properly before you print up a stack of business cards! This one can be tricky, though; if misspelled as 'physic,' a spell-checker won't catch your error.
5.
Investigate/Investigation--Many paranormal researchers are also investigators, meaning they get out there and actually do field work, trying to prove or disprove the existence of paranormal claims. Many paranormal researchers also seem to misspell this word as 'investagate' or investegate.' This is probably one of the more frequent misspellings that I see.
6.
Creepy--A lot of paranormal-themed websites, especially on social media, are all about the creepy factor. Things that are creepy are arguably more interesting than the more mundane aspects of paranormal research. Still, every time I see this word spelled 'creapy' I have to stop and process just what the hell the writer is trying to say. There are even a few Facebook group pages that use this erroneous spelling in the actual title of the page.
BONUS WORDS!
Pareidolia--this is that term that denotes how your brain puts together random stimuli into a meaningful pattern, for example: seeing faces or shapes within the clouds. This is a pretty difficult term to spell, and you don't see it come up in print all that often. Therefore, while I'm not a fan, I think its completely acceptable to pass up a futile attempt of writing this word and simply use its more common counterpart: MATRIXING.
Angel--Since this original post, I thought I would add another bonus word because I am not joking---I've seen this word misspelled by at LEAST a dozen people this week. It's pretty easy to call an angel an 'angle,' thanks to typos and autocorrect....but when you consistently misspell it over and over and over again, well, you might just need to reevaluate, lol.
So there ya go with MY top 6 (+2) list! Please join me over on
Facebook and let me know which commonly misspelled paranormal words drive YOU crazy! You can also hop over there and point out if I have inadvertently misspelled any words myself!
