Select the INCORRECTLY spelt word.

Correct — D. The word is spelt relevant, with an a in the final syllable. Option (d) prints Relevent, and that is the misspelling the item is hunting.

The ending follows the whole family: relevant, relevance, irrelevant — all -ant and -ance, never -ent and -ence.

The other three are spelt correctly, which is why they look harder than they are. Length is not the test here; one unstressed vowel is.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Bureaucracy — Bureaucracy is correct as printed: bureau plus the ending -cracy. Candidates expect a fault in the eau string or in the single r, but there is none.
• (b)
  Embarrass — Embarrass is correct as printed, doubling both the r and the s. It is the mirror of harass, which doubles only the s.
• (c)
  Connoisseur — Connoisseur is correct as printed, keeping its French shape with double n, double s and the ending -eur. Its difficulty is a decoy, not an error.

SSC spelling items usually set one short everyday word beside three long, foreign-looking ones. The long words are spelt correctly and the fault hides in the familiar one.

The rule that decides this card is the -ant / -ent ending. English gives no audible difference between them, so the ending has to be learnt with the word family: relevant sits with relevance and irrelevant.

Check the short option first. If it survives, only then work through the long ones.

Key facts

• Relevant, relevance and irrelevant all take -ant or -ance, never -ent or -ence.
• Embarrass doubles both the r and the s, while harass doubles only the s.
• Connoisseur keeps its French shape with double n, double s and the ending -eur.

Common traps

• Assuming the longest or most foreign-looking word must be the misspelt one.
• Trusting pronunciation, which cannot separate -ant from -ent in an unstressed syllable.

No directly related past PYQ was found.