Words Ending in -gue

Words Ending in -gue Words Ending in -gue Words Ending in -gue By Maeve Maddox An email in which the word colleague was spelled colleag got me thinking about English words that end with a hard g sound spelled -gue. Since only a few such words are in common use, learning to spell them shouldnt be too difficult. WARNING: These words start to look strange when you look at them in a group. Twenty-six common English words end with the spelling -gue. Variant spellings drop the -ue. The following -gue words have no acceptable variant spellings, not even in Merriam-Webster: brogue colleague fatigue fugue harangue ideologue intrigue league meringue morgue plague rogue tongue vague vogue For each of the following -gue words, Merriam-Webster recognizes variant spellings without the -ue: analogue catalogue travelogue decalogue demagogue epilogue monologue †¨ pedagogue †¨ prologue The OED, on the other hand, does not dignify decalog, demagog, travelog, epilog, or monolog with entries. It acknowledges the existence of pedagog, catalog, and synagog. Pedagog and catalog are listed among obsolete spellings. Travelogue has an entry at which it is identified as originally U.S, but no variant spelling is given. Synagog is shown at synagogue and labelled U.S. The OED does have an entry for prolog, but it has nothing to do with the word prologue: prolog: (The name of) a high-level logic programming language derived from Lisp, originally designed for natural language processing but now used in many artificial intelligence programs. I can write analog, catalog, and travelog without a shudder. I cannot bring myself to write epilog, decalog, or synagog. †¨ Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Spelling category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:100 Words for Facial ExpressionsThe Parts of a WordWhen to use "an"