Select the correctly spelt word.

Correct — D. The word is exhilaration, spelt e-x-h-i-l-a-r-a-t-i-o-n.

Three things have to be right at once: an h after the ex-, a single l, and an a in the syllable that carries the stress — ex-HIL-a-ra-tion.

Each wrong option breaks one of those. Exhileration puts an e where the a belongs, Exilaration drops the h, Exhillaration doubles the l.

Option (d) is the form that keeps all three.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Exhileration — Exhileration writes the stressed syllable with an e. The vowel is an a, and it runs through the whole family — exhilarate, exhilarating, exhilaration.
• (b)
  Exilaration — Exilaration drops the h. The word is built on the Latin hilaris, meaning cheerful, which also gives hilarious, and that h stays in every form.
• (c)
  Exhillaration — Exhillaration doubles the l. There is a single l here, the same single l as in hilarious and hilarity.

Exhilaration means a feeling of great excitement and happiness. It comes through exhilarate from Latin hilaris, cheerful, the root that also gives hilarious and hilarity.

Holding on to that root settles two of the three traps at once. The root is hilar-, with one h at the front of it and one l inside it.

That leaves the vowel, and the verb fixes it: exhilARate, with an a. The noun keeps what the verb has.

Key facts

• Exhilaration is spelt with an h after the ex- and with a single l.
• Exhilaration means a feeling of great excitement, happiness or elation.
• It shares the Latin root hilaris, meaning cheerful, with hilarious and hilarity.

Common traps

• Doubling the l because so many English words double a consonant in the middle.
• Writing exhileration on the strength of common -eration endings such as consideration and moderation.

No directly related past PYQ was found.