Five Hard Words Play today

Tier two of five

How to spell proprietary

What it means

owned by a single firm

How it sounds

/prəˈpraɪəˌtɛri/

Why it catches people out

Proprie plus tary. An r before the i.

The spellings people reach for

In a sentence

The code is proprietary and closed.

First appeared in

Puzzle #63 — September 25, 2026