How to Spell Pendulum

How to Spell Pendulum How to Spell Pendulum How to Spell Pendulum By Maeve Maddox A Facebook comment alerted me to a misspelling of the word pendulum that I’d never seen before. Once I began looking, I found thousands of examples. I wasn’t too surprised to find the word misspelled in social media, but it did seem strange to see pendulum spelled â€Å"pentulum† on sites selling clocks. Here are a few examples of this misspelling of pendulum: The pentulum swings. Public opinion will out in the end. (Facebook) In some countries, [the] political pentulum can swing wildly between opposite extremes. (political blog) I plan to start researching ideas to re-enter [the market] when the pentulum swings back to oversold. (stockmarket site) The one-day weight-driven movement has brass and steel gears that swing the pentulum. (clock merchant’s site) Pendulum is from the Latin adjective pendulus, â€Å"hanging down.† Literally, a pendulum is a weighted rod, cord, or wire suspended from a fixed point. The word is most closely associated with the pendulum that regulates the movement of a clock. Figuratively, a pendulum is anything that swings back and forth from one extreme to another. For example, one may speak of â€Å"the pendulum of public opinion† or â€Å"the pendulum of fashion.† English has several â€Å"pend words† that derive from the idea of hanging down or hanging from. See Hanging Words. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Spelling category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:10 Rules for Writing Numbers and NumeralsTime Words: Era, Epoch, and EonA Yes-and-No Answer About Hyphenating Phrases