Quirky questions about words pop into my head from time to time. Here's two I've been pondering lately.

1. What is the seven-syllable word most commonly used in ordinary conversation?

As I puzzle over this, it seems that seven syllables is something of a milestone. I can come up with numerous six-syllable words that are reasonably common, but the seventh is tough. It's not that seven-syllable words don't exist, nor that you can't think of any — especially if you're generous with prefixes and suffixes — but most of them aren't the sort of things that often come up in conversation. Sure, you may know about polyunsaturated fats or microencephalitis, but how often do you discuss them?

2. What word is most often misspelled by writers who otherwise generally have very good spelling?

By "most often", I mean most appearances in misspelled form, not highest ratio of wrong spelling to right. So a misspelled hapax legomenon (but how would you know?) doesn't win the contest with a 100% score.

The restrictive clause means I want to ignore the great legions of sloppy writing in which misspellings are rife and consider only writing which is reviewed with care by a competent speller, whether the original writer or the editor. In such writing, what misspelling most often sneaks past the defenses nonetheless?

I have candidates for both, but I'm interested in what words my readers think up. So that your thoughts aren't muddied by my own, I'll list my candidates in the special invisible print we invented for the Harry Potter book reviews. Here's a sample you can try:

This is special magic invisible type. If you can see this without selecting it, the magic does not work on your browser.

To see it, use your cursor to select the invisible words.

The best I come up with for question 1 is infinitesimally, but I'm not convinced it's best. Can you do better?

For question 2, I think minuscule must surely be the favorite, though accommodate (along with closely related accommodation(s)) is also a contender.

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