The eight-letter word 'separate' was top of the list compiled by UK-based research company onepoll.com due to a propensity to spell the word with an ‘E’ in place of the first 'A'.

Coming in second was the word 'definitely' which falls victim to a range of errors including the inclusion of an 'A' in place of the second 'I' and the dropping of the final 'E'.

'Manoeuvre' emerged as the third most commonly misspelt word due to its unusual string of vowels.

Coming in at fourth and fifth place, 'Embarrass' and 'occurrence' often confound spellers because of the double consonant.

The study, which looked at the spelling habits of 3,500 Britons, also found 46 per cent form judgements on people based on their spelling abilities, with 27 per cent admitting they believe people who cannot spell correctly are 'thick'.

Two-thirds of those surveyed said their constant use of spell-check while using a computer had made them lazy when writing letters or notes by hand.  One in five blamed predictive text messaging for their bad spelling.

Top 20 misspelt words:

1. Separate

2. Definitely

3. Manoeuvre

4. Embarrass

5. Occurrence

6. Consensus

7. Unnecessary

8. Acceptable

9. Broccoli

10. Referred

11. Bureaucracy

12. Supersede

13. Questionnaire

14. Connoisseur

15. A lot

16. Entrepreneur

17. Particularly

18. Liquify

19. Conscience

20. Parallel