Select the correct spelling of a word meaning 'a person who avoids work or effort'.

Correct — A. The word for a lazy person who avoids work is sluggard.

Two spelling points decide it. It has a double g, as in sluggish. It ends in -ard, the ending of drunkard, dullard and laggard, nouns for a person with an unwelcome trait.

Sluggard → option (a).

Why the others are wrong

• (b)
  Sluggerd — Sluggerd has the right double g but the wrong ending. The suffix is -ard, and in speech its unstressed vowel sounds like 'uh', which hides the a.
• (c)
  Sluggart — Sluggart swaps the final d for t. The -art ending is real in braggart, which can make this spelling look right, but sluggard ends in -ard.
• (d)
  Slugerd — Slugerd makes two errors: a single g, where sluggish and sluggard both double it, and the -erd ending in place of -ard.

A spelling item built on a meaning tests whether you know the word and can write it. Here the meaning, a person who avoids work, points to sluggard.

The options differ in two places only: one g or two, and the ending -ard, -erd or -art. Settle each separately.

The double g matches sluggish, from the same family. The ending is the -ard of drunkard and laggard.

Key facts

• A sluggard is a lazy person who avoids work.
• Sluggard and sluggish both have a double g.
• The ending -ard marks a person with an unwelcome trait, as in drunkard, dullard and laggard.
• Braggart is spelt with -art, but sluggard is spelt with -ard.

Common traps

• Writing -erd because the unstressed ending sounds like 'uh' in speech
• Choosing Sluggart by analogy with braggart

No directly related past PYQ was found.