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Dilemna or dilemma?

Hi. I just realised the other day that the correct spelling for dilemna is actually 'dilemma'; this intruiged me because not only does 'dilemma' look as if it's spelt wrong, but I've always used dilemna, and read dilemna. Is anyone else the same as me? Is dilemna an English version, or an older English version of dilemma?

No, it's definitely dilemma. Not very intriguing if you ask me.

Reply 3

Dante786

11

Marisa_Grace

Hi. I just realised the other day that the correct spelling for dilemna is actually 'dilemma'; this intruiged me because not only does 'dilemma' look as if it's spelt wrong, but I've always used dilemna, and read dilemna. Is anyone else the same as me? Is dilemna an English version, or an older English version of dilemma?

I too had the same problem.

Dictionary?

OP

Shiny Dirt

Dictionary?

I've checked already... but dilemma just looks wrong.

Reply 6

Anamaria90

13

http://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2008/02/dilemma-inside-enigma.html

Reply 7

Shiny Dirt

9

well it sounds more like dilemma than dilemna

edit: dilemma may look wrong but dilemna sounds wrong

Reply 8

marcusmerehay

17

Well there's a dilemma for you right there! :awesome:

Reply 9

MSB

17

'Dilemna' looks more wrong than 'dilemma'.

Probably because it is.

google it?

How can there be any confusion? It's not like you pronounce an 'n' :s-smilie:

Dilemna sounds like some unfortunate person's nickname for their recurring enema dilemmas.

Reply 12

AspiringLinguist

I used to do exactly the same thing :|. Not exactly sure why, as I've always been pretty good at spelling!

Reply 13

DarrenBeckham

Hey. I was in exactly the same boat until recently. I was sitting in my Masters psychology lecture looking through a friend's piece of work for her and noticed that she had spelt it as 'dilema' and that the spell checker said it was wrong. There I went, cocky as you like, and added an 'n' in what I thought was the correct place to much derision from my younger apprentice. So strong was I in my belief that it was spelt dilemna that I bet more than 2 people £20 that I was right.....Upon researching it on the net it turns out that a text book that was used my many schools across the country for many years contained the initial error, and that it had proliferated since then. Many respondents to this thread who have been brought up without this book and who have had the benefit of 'spell checker software' probably think that we are all nuts...but think about it....what if someone told you that hymn was really spelt hymm, or psychology was actually sychology. Unless you have evidence to the contrary then you do not tend to question your existing knowledge. Dilemma was just accepted as one of those spelling idiocyncracies of our English language by many people. I wonder how many people do not know how to spell 'definitely'......interesting question is raised "How do we know what we know, and how do we know if our knowledge is accurate?" Daz