--- title: Donald Trump: Merriam Webster on Council and Counsel Meaning description: Merriam Webster says searches for both council and counsel spiked after President Trump used the spelling councel in a tweet canonical: https://time.com/4784891/merriam-webster-corrects-trump-counsel/ author: Ashley Hoffman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-05-18T20:23:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:43:46.848Z og:title: Merriam Webster to President Trump: You’re Spelling 'Counsel' Wrong og:description: It's "the second time in ten days that the president has misspelled counsel" og:url: https://time.com/4784891/merriam-webster-corrects-trump-counsel/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt70a5016bbf031831/6988cdd62dce01d6af9ed89b/donald-trump4.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: 170518_donald trump og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Merriam Webster to President Trump: You’re Spelling 'Counsel' Wrong twitter:description: It's "the second time in ten days that the president has misspelled counsel" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt70a5016bbf031831/6988cdd62dce01d6af9ed89b/donald-trump4.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Merriam Webster to President Trump: You’re Spelling 'Counsel' Wrong by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman May 18, 2017 8:23 PM UTC  President Donald Trump looks on as he hands out diplomas to Coast Guard cadets at the commencement ceremony at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, May 17, 2017 in New London, Connecticut. President Donald Trump looks on as he hands out diplomas to Coast Guard cadets at the commencement ceremony at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, May 17, 2017 in New London, Connecticut.Drew Angerer—Getty Images by [Ashley Hoffman](https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/) ## Ashley Hoffman May 18, 2017 8:23 PM UTC [Merriam Webster](http://time.com/4726025/dictionary-ivanka-trump-complicity-merriam-webster/) is not done [schooling the President](http://time.com/4774687/merriam-webster-dictionary-politics-donald-trump-hillary-clinton/) on his homophones. President Donald Trump fired off a tweet on Thursday criticizing the appointment of a [special counsel](https://twitter.com/Andy/status/865172192174190592) to investigate allegations his campaign collaborated with Russia to influence the 2016 election, tweeting: “With all of the illegal acts that took place in the Clinton campaign & Obama Administration, there was never a special “councel” appointed!” (He has since tweeted the message with the correct spelling.) > [](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/865207118785372160) “Lookups for both council and counsel spiked on May 18, 2017, after President Trump used the spelling councel in a tweet,” Merriam Webster tweeted Thursday, linking to a post on their site, which noted that this was “the second time in ten days that the president has misspelled counsel on Twitter, the previous time in a tweet on May 8.” Ever the lingo snobs, the reference noted that “councel” is the most searched word of the day deploying the line “by far,” to use terms the President [might have said a few times](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/no-gday-mate-on-call-with-australian-pm-trump-badgers-and-brags/2017/02/01/88a3bfb0-e8bf-11e6-80c2-30e57e57e05d%5Fstory.html?utm%5Fterm=.9665518eae68 https://twitter.com/MerriamWebster/status/865260640092520448). > [](https://twitter.com/MerriamWebster/status/865260640092520448) But the typo was just the latest catnip for the social media team over at Merriam Webster, which took to Twitter to fire off a pair of snarky tweets last week reminding the President of the difference between council and counsel, after he first mistakenly used “council,” which means assembly, while “counsel” means lawyer. Merriam Webster being Merriam Webster, will not let POTUS live this one down. > [](https://twitter.com/MerriamWebster/status/861576558494056448) > [](https://twitter.com/MerriamWebster/status/861577625927659520) It looks like class is not dismissed yet. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4784891/merriam-webster-corrects-trump-counsel/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4784891/merriam-webster-corrects-trump-counsel/"},"headline":"Merriam Webster to President Trump: You’re Spelling 'Counsel' Wrong","datePublished":"2017-05-18T20:23:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:43:46.848Z","description":"It's \"the second time in ten days that the president has misspelled counsel\"","url":"https://time.com/4784891/merriam-webster-corrects-trump-counsel/","keywords":["Newsfeed","politics","viral","Donald Trump","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt70a5016bbf031831/6988cdd62dce01d6af9ed89b/donald-trump4.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Ashley Hoffman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/ashley-hoffman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt70a5016bbf031831/6988cdd62dce01d6af9ed89b/donald-trump4.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"170518_donald trump","caption":"Donald Trump Delivers Commencement Address At U.S. Coast Guard Academy","creditText":"Drew Angerer—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4784891/merriam-webster-corrects-trump-counsel/","name":"Merriam Webster to President Trump: You’re Spelling 'Counsel' Wrong"}}]}] ```