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SPELLING definitely is a problem for many people - who insist on writing it "definately".

A survey revealed yesterday that it is the most common spelling blunder in the English language.

Second place went to sacrilegious, often misspellt as sacreligious. Indict - often written wrongly as indite - was third.

And manoeuvre's tricky succession of vowels brought it fourth place.

Another vowel-heavy word, bureaucracy, came fifth.

A spokesman for researchers OnePoll.com said: "So many of us seem unable to spell. Considering people judge others, yet don't like their intelligence to be judged by how well they spell, they should up their game and pick up a dictionary."

The vegetable broccoli came sixth, followed by phlegm at seven and prejudice at eight. Consensus and unnecessary completed the top 10.

The research found 57 per cent judge other people on their spelling, with 42 per cent admitting they believe people who can't spell are "thick".

And half blame computer spell-checks for their inadequacies, with one in three pointing the finger at text messaging.

Top ten Misspelt Words 1. Definitely (Definately) 2. Sacrilegious (Sacreligious) 3. Indict (Indite) 4. Manoeuvre (Maneouvre) 5. Bureaucracy (Beaurocracy) 6. Broccoli (Brocolli) 7. Phlegm (Phleghm) 8. Prejudice (Predjudice) 9. Consensus (Conscensus) 10.Unnecessary (Unecessary)