Treacherous

How to spell treacherous

11 letters · 3 syllables

37 of the 83 people asked to spell treacherous in Spelling Garden got it wrong the first time.

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

trecherous treacherous

What people typed instead

• trecherous14 people
• treachorous3 people

How to pronounce treacherous

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does treacherous mean?

1. adjectivePresenting hidden or unpredictable dangers, especially in conditions that look safer than they are.
2. adjectiveGuilty of betraying trust or loyalty; deceitful toward those who rely on you.

Treacherous in a sentence

• The mountain path becomes treacherous after heavy rain.

• His treacherous behaviour cost him every friendship in the firm.

• Black ice made the morning commute treacherous.

• The spy was branded treacherous for selling secrets to a rival nation.

Where does treacherous come from?

Language of origin: French

This word comes from the Old French adjective trecheros or tricheros, meaning 'deceitful' or 'cheating', which was built on the verb trichier, 'to cheat or trick'. English took it on in the 1300s, first describing people who betrayed trust, exactly the way a traitor does. The same Old French verb is the ancestor of the everyday English word 'trick', so a treacherous person and a clever trick share a common root in deception. Over time the meaning widened from human betrayal to anything that secretly fails you, which is how we came to speak of treacherous ice or a treacherous road. A useful spelling note: the word is built on 'treachery', not on 'teach' or 'reach', and the soft 'ch' plus the unstressed '-erous' ending are where many adults slip.

How the word is built

• treacher- (from Old French trichier: to cheat, deceive)
• -ous (adjective suffix: full of)

People who misspell treacherous also struggle with

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

• reconnaissance 93% of them got it wrong
• supersede 79% of them got it wrong
• idiosyncrasy 75% of them got it wrong
• penchant 67% of them got it wrong