Courteous

How to spell courteous

9 letters · 3 syllables

The most common mistake is courtious. The letters people get wrong are highlighted.

courtious courteous

What people typed instead

• courtious4 people
• curtious3 people

How to pronounce courteous

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does courteous mean?

1. adjectivePolite, respectful, and considerate in manner toward others.

Courteous in a sentence

• The receptionist remained courteous even when the queue grew long.

• A courteous reply to the complaint calmed the angry customer.

Where does courteous come from?

Language of origin: French

The word comes from the Old French corteis, meaning 'having manners fit for a royal court', which was built on cort, the word for a king's or lord's court (itself from the Latin cohors, an enclosure or company of people). The idea was that the polished, gracious behaviour expected at court was the model of good manners, so to be courteous was literally to act court-fashion. English borrowed it in the 1200s, originally spelling and stressing it in various ways before the modern form settled. The spelling trap lies in that buried 'court' followed by the unusual '-eous' ending, which sounds like a plain '-ous' but carries a silent 'e'. The same court root gives us 'courtesy', 'courtly', and even 'curtsy', a contraction of courtesy, all reminders that civility was once a matter of palace etiquette.

How the word is built

• court (royal court, from Old French cort)
• -eous (adjective suffix meaning 'having the quality of')

People who misspell courteous also struggle with

Of the Spelling Garden players who got courteous wrong the first time, this is how many also got each of these wrong.

• connoisseur 60% of them got it wrong