What Word Is Spelled Wrong in the Dictionary?

Where the trick sits

"Spelled wrong" can mean spelled incorrectly, or it can mean spelled w-r-o-n-g. A dictionary spells every word correctly, even where it lists two accepted spellings of one word, such as "judgment" and "judgement", so the first reading has no answer. The second reading has exactly one: the word "wrong" is spelled "wrong", in the dictionary and everywhere else.

The answer is sitting in the question itself, right after the word "spelled". Listeners search for a word that people often misspell, and the riddle never asks for one.

A close cousin

Ask "which word is always spelled incorrectly?" and the answer is "incorrectly". The same idea works in both: the question contains a word, and that word is the answer.

A silent letter

The first letter in "wrong" is silent, as it is in "write" and "wrist". The silent letter is one reason the word looks easy to misspell, which makes the question sound reasonable.

Try it on paper

Written out, the riddle becomes a small puzzle of its own. Ask a listener to write the answer, then read the question again aloud.