Choose the correctly spelled word that replaces the misspelled word in the…

Many English adjectives that carry the –tious/–cious sound are built around the Latin element “-scient-” (as in science, scientist, omniscient), which contributes the ‘t’ even where it is barely heard in speech. “Conscientious” is one such word: it is built on that “-scient-” element, not on the differently spelled word “conscience” (which has no ‘t’). Because the two words look and sound similar, a common misspelling confuses “conscientious” with “conscience” and replaces its ‘t’ with a ‘c’, producing a wrong form that sounds nearly identical but does not match the accepted spelling.

In the given sentence, the word filling this role is printed with that ‘t’ replaced by a ‘c’, so it is the misspelled word the question is asking about. Applying the rule above — “conscientious” takes its ‘t’ from the “-scient-” element, not from “conscience” — the correctly spelled replacement is “conscientious”.

• “accommodate” is already correctly spelled in the sentence (double ‘c’, double ‘m’); it is not the word that needs replacing.

• “committee” is already correctly spelled in the sentence (double ‘m’, double ‘t’, double ‘e’); it is not the word that needs replacing.

• “supplication” is already correctly spelled in the sentence (the standard noun form of “supplicate”); it is not the word that needs replacing.

Since the other three words are already correctly spelled as printed, only the altered word needs correcting, and its correctly spelled replacement is “conscientious”.