To misspell means to spell a word incorrectly. When you write “recieve” instead of “receive” or “seperate” instead of “separate,” you've misspelled those words.

Everyone misspells words sometimes, even excellent writers. English spelling can be tricky because many words don't follow predictable patterns. Why does “night” have a gh but “bite” doesn't? Why is it “their” and not “thier”? These inconsistencies make misspelling common, especially when you're learning new vocabulary.

Some words get misspelled so often they become famous for it. People frequently mix up “definitely” (writing “definately”), confuse “a lot” with “alot,” or flip letters in “weird” to make “wierd.” Teachers and editors spend considerable time catching misspellings before papers and books reach their final readers.

Spell-checkers on computers help catch misspellings, but they can't catch everything. If you write “their” when you meant “there,” both are correctly spelled words, so the computer won't flag the error. That's why careful proofreading still matters. The noun form is misspelling: “The essay had several misspellings that the student corrected before turning it in.”