'Ophthalmology' has the notorious 'phth' cluster — making eye science one of the hardest words to spell.
The branch of medicine concerned with the study and treatment of disorders and diseases of the eye.
From Greek 'ophthalmología' (the study of the eye), composed of 'ophthalmos' (ὀφθαλμός, eye, eyeball) + '-logia' (the study of, the discourse about — from 'légein,' to speak, to gather). Greek 'ophthalmos' derives from 'op-' (a stem related to seeing, from PIE *h₃ekʷ- or *okʷ-) + a suffix, with the word itself being one of the most phonologically complex Greek anatomical terms, preserving ancient consonant clusters. The PIE root *h₃ekʷ- (to see, the eye) is extraordinarily well-attested across Indo-European: Greek 'ṓps' (eye, face — → 'optic,' 'optical,' 'synopsis,' 'autopsy'), Latin 'oculus' (eye → 'ocular,' 'inoculate' — originally to graft an 'eye' of a plant), Latin 'vidēre' (to see — via a different but related root), Sanskrit
'Ophthalmology' is one of the most commonly misspelled words in English — the 'phth' cluster is notoriously difficult. The 'ph' represents Greek phi (φ), the first 'th' represents theta (θ), and together they reflect the original Greek 'ophthalmos' (ὀφθαλμός). The word has defeated more spelling bee contestants than perhaps
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