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Proper spelling is the writing of a word or words with all necessary letters and diacritics present in an accepted, conventional order. It is one of the elements of orthography and a prescriptive element of language. As a means of transcribing the sounds of language into alphabetic letters, spelling, however officially sanctioned, often offers but a rough and inconsistant approximation.

Whereas uniformity in the spelling of words is one of the features of a standard language in modern times, and official languages usually prescribe standard spelling, Minority languages and regional languages often lack this trait. Furthermore, it is a relatively recent development in various major languages in national contexts, linked to the compiling of dictionaries, the founding of national academies, and other institutions of language maintenance, including compulsory mass education.

Learning proper spelling by rote is a traditional element of elementary education. In the US, the ubiquity of the phonics method of teaching reading, which emphasizes the importance of "sounding out" spelling in learning to read, also puts a premium on the prescriptive learning of spelling. For these reasons, divergence from standard spelling is often perceived as an index of stupidity, illiteracy, or lower class standing. The intelligence of Dan Quayle, for instance, was repeatedly disparaged for correcting a student's spelling of potato as potatoe at an elementary school spelling bee in Trenton, New Jersey on June 15, 1992. In fact, "potatoe" is a variant historical spelling now in disuse.

Divergent spelling is also popular advertising technique used to attract attention or to render a trademark "suggestive" rather than "merely descriptive": qwik, donut, or tonite, for example.

Spelling evolves, often from a principle of alphabetic thrift rather than phonetic rectitude: catalogue becomes catalog. Despite this, in countries such as the US and UK without official spelling policies, many vestigial and foreign spelling conventions work simultaneously. In countries where there is a national language maintenance policy, such as the Netherlands and Germany, spelling reforms were driven to make spelling a better index of pronunciation.

Since traditional language teaching methods emphasized written language over spoken language, a second-language speaker can have a better spelling ability than a native in spite of having a worse command of the language.

The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) aims to provide a medium of alphabetic characters to transcribe all sounds in all languages.

See also

• Misspelling
• Spelling reform
  • Reforms of French orthography
  • German spelling reform of 1996
  • Reforms of Russian orthography
  • Shavian alphabet
• Phonemic orthography
• Spelling pronunciation
• English spelling
  • List of English words with diacritics
• Greek orthography
  • Monotonic orthography
  • Polytonic orthography
• Latin spelling and pronunciation
• Russian orthography
• Grapheme
• Official script

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