1. Gutta-percha (from Malay getah, tree sap, and perca strip of cloth) is a rubbery substance used in dental fillings, golf balls, building construction, etc.
2. A shoat (from Dutch schote, via Middle English) is a young (but weaned) pig.
3. A cataract (from Latin catar(r)actat) is a waterfall. There is an eye disorder that’s also called a cataract.
4. To sequester (from Latin sequestrare) is to isolate, seclude, (in law) to take away from someone and hold until a legal question is resolved.
5. A person who is perspicacious (from Latin perspicāx, to see through) is mentally astute, sharp, discerning. Nick Tesla was exceptionally perspicacious.

1. A numismatist (from French numismatique, from Late Latin numisma, coin) is someone who collects coins, medals, etc.
2. Orpheus (from Greek mythology) was a poet and musician whose music could move even inanimate objects, and who almost succeeded in rescuing his wife from the underworld.
3. Stochastic (from Greek stokhazesthai, to guess at) means arising from chance, or involving probabilities. The gambler relied on stochastic analysis in placing his bets.
4. A nimbus (from the Latin term for rainstorm) is a cloud or halo. In classical mythology, it was a shining cloud around a deity who came to earth. Today it’s sometimes used figuratively—as in "Obama now wears a nimbus of goodwill, but that may vaporize."
5. Our solar system. The science teacher used an orrery, with spheres of different sizes, to explain the arrangement of the sun and its planets.

1. Schadenfreude (from Greek schaden, harm, and freude, joy) is the feeling of malicious pleasure over the misfortune of someone else. She wasn’t a bit ashamed of her feeling of schadenfreude when she saw the rude driver getting a ticket.
2. A null set (from Latin nullus, n(e) not + ūllus any) is one that is empty. The math teacher explained that the set of odd numbers equally divisible by two would be a null set.
3. Ozymandias (aka Ramesses the Great), an ancient-Egyptian Pharaoh, was the subject of a famous poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley, which dealt in part with the eventual downfall of the most powerful people and empires.
4. A wassail (from a contraction of Middle English waeshaeil, be healthy) is a drinking party (or the drinking, or a toast). The villagers celebrated the return of warm weather with much wassailing and singing.
5. The old wassail cup. The y in such phrases is simply a printer’s adaptation of the Old-English thorn, which represented the th sound in modern English.

1. A stoma (from the Greek for mouth) is a kind of perforation, or surgically constructed bodily opening. Leaf pores are also called stomas.
2. A legate (from Latin legatus, deputy) is an official emissary, especially a papal one.
3. An encomium (from Greek enkomion, praising speech) is a formal expression of high praise.
4. Ecumenical (from Greek oikoumenikos, whole inhabited world) means universal, especially in regard to religious unification.
5. A teal (from Middle English tele) is a small, short-necked freshwater duck with dark greenish-blue head and wings; also, its color.

1. A customer. Lagniappe, derived from Creole and used mostly in the South (especially Louisiana) refers to a small gift given by a merchant to a customer.
2. A magnum (from Latin magnus, large) can mean either a large bottle of wine (usually 1.5 liters) or a firearm that fires bullets with more-powerful charges than usual. (It also means unusually large or powerful.)
3. The nape (from Middle English) is the back of the neck (often phrased nape of the neck). The mother cat carried her kittens by the nape of the neck.
4. Op cit (from Latin opus citatum), often used in footnotes, means in the work cited or quoted.
5. A paragon (from Old Italian) is a model of excellence. She appeared to be a paragon of virtue, but had a secret life as an agent provocateur.

1. Chthonic (from Greek chthonios, earth, underworld) means darkly mysterious, weird—associated with spirits living under the earth.
   
2. A journey or flight, especially to a safer or more-desirable place (from Arabic hijrah, flight).
   
3. Igneous means produced in high heat (from Latin igneus, fire). The vulcanologist showed us samples of igneous rock.
   
4. Layered, as when thin strips are glued together. The old wooden tennis rackets were laminated, often of several strips of wood.
   
5. A lorry (perhaps from dialectal lurry, lug or haul) is a truck, especially a large one.

What's the first spelling rule you learned, or the first one you can think of?

Your answer is probably the same one we get when we ask the working adults in our classes. They always recite that old "i-before-e" rule—at least the first part of it. Very few of them recall the end, which goes something like "except after c, or when sounded like a, as in neighbor or weigh."

Most of us learned that rule in the early grades, and had it reinforced over the years by teachers and books. So it must be a good rule, right?

Well, what makes a rule good? One criterion is the number of exceptions—if there are too many, the rule can become practically useless. And how many are we dealing with here? Some books say there are five exceptions to the i-e rule, some say seven, one says nine. So we decided to run a simple little check of our own.

We started a list, and whenever one of us thought of an exception, we jotted it down. In two or three weeks, with no computer help, we had a list of more than forty exceptions to the rule. We'd be willing to bet that there are at least a hundred, maybe many more. So the rule is not only of little if any value, it could work against us when we're trying to spell one of the many exceptions.

So forget the rule—if you can.

And forget the rest of the old spelling rules too. Use these instead. They work.

• Use your spellchecker, but don't depend on it entirely.

• Keep a good dictionary in reach, and reach for it often.

• Ask a good speller to proofread your work.

• Learn memory aids (there's a rat in separate) or make up your own.

• Keep a personal list of words you have trouble with.