If a word is spelled wrong in the dictionary, how would you know?

It would depend upon the word, and the amount of irony in the misspelling. The dictionary that included "Proofreid" or "accuratte" would be the target of standup comedians, talk-show hosts, bloggers, and wisecrackers everywhere people spoke English and used dictionaries.

Most folks, though, prolly wouldn't bust a gut over, "huamachil" ("a common thorny tropical American tree having terminal racemes of yellow flowers followed by sickle-shaped or circinate edible pods and yielding good timber and a yellow dye and mucilaginous gum." Now you know.), spelled as, "huamachel". With all due respect to the botanically-minded, I can't imagine many snickers over a mistake inside that m-word to the left of "gum" either.

You would know if: 1). You picked up on the mistake. 2). You heard about it on TV or the radio, or read about it in the paper. 3) The publisher issued a recall. 4) Someone else caught your innocent misspelling, brought it to your attention, and you rushed home to check the dictionary and found it wasn't the sharpest book in the bookcase.

Otherwise, you'd likely remain blissfully unaware.

By comparing it with other dictionaries. If they all have the same mis-spelling, you'd have to accept it wasn't an error.

For the Dutch language, the dictionaries are not the authorities. There's an authority, called Taalunie (Language Union), supported by the Dutch, Belgian and Surinam government, that publishes a list (more like a book) of correctly spelled words. You can simply compare this to the dictionary. :-)

I don't know about other languages.

You would refer to another dictionary. Some words just LOOK wrong. I often use multiple dictionaries when something looks wrong, although I have never found a typogrpahical error in a dictionary.

Common knowledge?

There are certain words that do not exist. These are placed for copywrite protection. If the publishers of the dictionaries find a copy of their work with this "fake word" in it they know it was a copy and not their work. Rand McNally, who spends a lot of money and research for accurate map making will insert a fictictious town that does not exist for the same reason. If that word or town, shows up on another publishers work, they can prove copywright infringment.

There is no such thing as "the" dictionary. Simply look up the word in another publishers dictionary to cross reference.

Use the Superdictionary. That will help.

I guess only through periodical revisions and corrections the editorial house that publishes that dictionary makes.

if everyone says something wrong is right, then it becomes right...can you understand my logic?

we would we just think it was right

We wouldn't. But it wouldn't matter if we all agreed on the "wrong" spelling it would be the right spelling. All spelling is is a way for us to communicate easily without confusing each other.

We could spell "goldfish" as "poopbutt" and as long as we knew poopbutt stood for that little shiny orange fish what would it matter?

Oh, just type it into Word. If there's no red squiggly it *must* be right. :)

I doubt very much that this would ever happen, it's something you don't need to worry about.

If two letters together are combined so that there is no way to audibal[y] and correctly pronounce that word then it would be wrong.The word ``RECEIVE``in the dictionary is spelled wrong.Correct spelling is ``RECIEVE``.There is no way to properly combine the``e & i`.How and why it it was never caught and corrected is a mystery to me.Regards.RJ WRIGHT

You'd probably check another dictionary or edition to confirm. But you probably wouldn't know off the top of your head unless you really knew the construction and roots of the English language.

There may be no way to tell... GREAT question!!!

The question was how do you know if a word is spelled "wrong" in the dictionary.

Well ... you Look it up in the W section. :D

An editor or linguist would probably pick it up, but dictionaries go through SOOOO much editing, the likelyhood of there being a typo is very low.

The dictionary is always right

Type it up on microsoft word then spell check it - if it was still wrong - id go on wikipedia - if its still wrong id ask on AB and then if its still wrong id just go - Shut Ya Face to anyone who trys to prove me wrong - So - Shut Ya Face

Check the details section to see if it was published in America.

Have more than one dictionary from different authors

That's actually a good question..

If we live in the matrix, how would we know?

Your question explains why educators all over the world insist you use more than one reference when writing very important papers. Everyone knows that the printed and written word is subject to mistakes, and to best way to avoid it is to consult several different sources.

Have you ever seen what happens when a mistake is written in stone, such as on a monument? It can be very embarrassing.