Medicine

This is one of the 117 mis-spellings listed as 'Common difficulties' in the section on 'Spelling' within 'Writing' in UEfAP.

Note that the word medicine is spelled with one '-e-' in the first syllable and another (silent) one at the end of the fourth syllable; there are two '-i-'s in the syllables between. (It may help some spellers to think of 'medical' and the slang term for a student, or even a practitioner, of medicine 'a medic'.)

• This is despite the pronunciation, which for most British speakers is realized in the RP way as only two syllables: 'MED-sen' (IPA: /ˈmɛd sɪ (or ə)n/). Sometimes it has three: 'MED-i-sin', /ˈmɛd ɪ sə (or ɪ)n/. The adjective medicinal is stressed on the second syllable, 'med-ISS-in-al', /mɛd ˈɪs ^ə (or ɪ)n ^əl/.