In this installment of Word Knots and the next we’ll focus on one word that is very commonly misspelled: I’ve seen this in published work and have also heard it on broadcast news (which is inexcusable).

Our source for this installment is The Dictionary of Disagreeable English by Robert Hartwell Fiske (Chicago: Writer’s Digest Books). This is a great book to browse: I highly recommend it.

From Fiske:

renumeration

The word is remuneration (ri-myoo-nah-RA-shen). 

As Fiske writes (excerpted):

To remunerate means to pay or compensate, not to repay or recompensate. 

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Let’s look at what Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary says (excerpted):

renumeration

The word you’ve entered isn’t in the Collegiate Dictionary.

remuneration

noun

1   : something that remunerates : recompense, pay

2  : an act or fact of remunerating.

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What’s truly alarming with this one is that Microsoft Word doesn’t even flag “renumeration” as an error, so good luck with AI. As I said earlier I’ve seen this in print and have heard it on the air and as a result this sort of error tends to creep into common usage to such an extent that otherwise seemingly literate people will think it’s correct.

Let’s look at examples of the word used correctly.

The hiring was stalled due to issues over remuneration.

Although they couldn’t offer wages, the pizzeria provided meals as remuneration in addition to tips left by customers.

Remember: word choice matters.

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