A Sudden Noisy Stopping Of The Breath This Word Can Be Spelt In Two Ways Hot | 720p – 2K |

| Feature | Hiccup | Hiccough | |---------|--------|----------| | Spelling frequency | Common (95% of use) | Rare (5%, mostly historical) | | Pronunciation | HICK-up | HICK-up (same!) | | Etymology | Onomatopoeic | Folk etymology (false link to “cough”) | | Dictionary status | Standard | Accepted variant | | Crossword clues | “Sudden breath stop” | “Odd spelling of a spasm” | | Connection to “hot” | Spicy food trigger | Indirect (same word) |

Here is the heart of your keyword: “this word can be spelt in two ways.”

The two legitimate spellings are:

Yes, “hiccough.” Pronounced exactly the same way as “hiccup” (HICK-up), despite the misleading “-ough” ending that usually sounds like “uff” (as in “tough” or “enough”) or “oh” (as in “dough”). Yes, “hiccough

So why two spellings?

Most hiccups are short-lived and resolve on their own within a few minutes. However, there are several home remedies and techniques that can help get rid of hiccups:

Hiccups can result from a wide range of causes. Some of the most common triggers include: then an abrupt halt

Before we get to the spelling bee, let’s identify the phenomenon itself.

Medically and colloquially, a sudden, spasmodic contraction of the diaphragm followed by an involuntary closure of the glottis (the space between your vocal cords) produces a distinctive sound: a sharp intake of breath, then an abrupt halt, then a noisy release.

Most people call this a hiccup.

But not everyone. And not every dictionary.

That sudden, noisy stoppage is technically a singultus (the Latin medical term), but in everyday English, we’ve given it two competing spellings that have coexisted for centuries.