diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index d78b8e109..bb6cb15c1 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -113,7 +113,7 @@
 ### 1.0.0-alpha6 (2012-10-23)
 
   * Schema: Added ability to pass additional options to repositories (i.e. ssh keys/client certificates to secure private repos)
-  * Schema: Added a new `~` operator that should be prefered over `>=`, see http://getcomposer.org/doc/01-basic-usage.md#package-versions
+  * Schema: Added a new `~` operator that should be preferred over `>=`, see http://getcomposer.org/doc/01-basic-usage.md#package-versions
   * Schema: Version constraints `<x.y` are assumed to be `<x.y-dev` unless specified as `<x.y-stable` to reduce confusion
   * Added `config` command to edit/list config values, including --global switch for system config
   * Added OAuth token support for the GitHub API
@@ -121,7 +121,7 @@
   * Added --prefer-dist flag to force installs of dev packages from zip archives instead of clones
   * Added --working-dir (-d) flag to change the working directory
   * Added --profile flag to all commands to display execution time and memory usage
-  * Added `github-protocols` config key to define the order of prefered protocols for github.com clones
+  * Added `github-protocols` config key to define the order of preferred protocols for github.com clones
   * Added ability to interactively reset changes to vendor dirs while updating
   * Added support for hg bookmarks in the hg driver
   * Added support for svn repositories not following the standard trunk/branch/tags scheme
diff --git a/doc/articles/handling-private-packages-with-satis.md b/doc/articles/handling-private-packages-with-satis.md
index 79e5e27a2..dae7a6c92 100644
--- a/doc/articles/handling-private-packages-with-satis.md
+++ b/doc/articles/handling-private-packages-with-satis.md
@@ -157,9 +157,9 @@ Example using HTTP over SSL using a client certificate:
 
 > **Tip:** See [ssl context options](http://www.php.net/manual/en/context.ssl.php) for more information.
 
-### Authentification
+### Authentication
 
-When your private repositories are password protected, you can store the authentification details permanently. 
+When your private repositories are password protected, you can store the authentication details permanently. 
 The first time Composer needs to authenticate against some domain it will prompt you for a username/password 
 and then you will be asked whether you want to store it. 
 
diff --git a/doc/articles/http-basic-authentication.md b/doc/articles/http-basic-authentication.md
index 2119513ce..4e53c36f1 100644
--- a/doc/articles/http-basic-authentication.md
+++ b/doc/articles/http-basic-authentication.md
@@ -55,5 +55,5 @@ username/password pairs, for example:
 
 The main advantage of the auth.json file is that it can be gitignored so
 that every developer in your team can place their own credentials in there,
-which makes revokation of credentials much easier than if you all share the
+which makes revocation of credentials much easier than if you all share the
 same.
diff --git a/res/composer-schema.json b/res/composer-schema.json
index ac84d5eb0..6c7492c8f 100644
--- a/res/composer-schema.json
+++ b/res/composer-schema.json
@@ -289,7 +289,7 @@
         },
         "prefer-stable": {
             "type": ["boolean"],
-            "description": "If set to true, stable packages will be prefered to dev packages when possible, even if the minimum-stability allows unstable packages."
+            "description": "If set to true, stable packages will be preferred to dev packages when possible, even if the minimum-stability allows unstable packages."
         },
         "bin": {
             "type": ["array"],
diff --git a/src/Composer/Command/ShowCommand.php b/src/Composer/Command/ShowCommand.php
index 6f2a1dab6..7b36528f6 100644
--- a/src/Composer/Command/ShowCommand.php
+++ b/src/Composer/Command/ShowCommand.php
@@ -272,9 +272,9 @@ EOT
             $matches[$index] = $package->getId();
         }
 
-        // select prefered package according to policy rules
-        if (!$matchedPackage && $matches && $prefered = $policy->selectPreferedPackages($pool, array(), $matches)) {
-            $matchedPackage = $pool->literalToPackage($prefered[0]);
+        // select preferred package according to policy rules
+        if (!$matchedPackage && $matches && $preferred = $policy->selectPreferredPackages($pool, array(), $matches)) {
+            $matchedPackage = $pool->literalToPackage($preferred[0]);
         }
 
         return array($matchedPackage, $versions);
diff --git a/src/Composer/DependencyResolver/DefaultPolicy.php b/src/Composer/DependencyResolver/DefaultPolicy.php
index 5ae6b2c31..2ebe95454 100644
--- a/src/Composer/DependencyResolver/DefaultPolicy.php
+++ b/src/Composer/DependencyResolver/DefaultPolicy.php
@@ -62,7 +62,7 @@ class DefaultPolicy implements PolicyInterface
         return $pool->getPriority($package->getRepository());
     }
 
-    public function selectPreferedPackages(Pool $pool, array $installedMap, array $literals, $requiredPackage = null)
+    public function selectPreferredPackages(Pool $pool, array $installedMap, array $literals, $requiredPackage = null)
     {
         $packages = $this->groupLiteralsByNamePreferInstalled($pool, $installedMap, $literals);
 
diff --git a/src/Composer/DependencyResolver/PolicyInterface.php b/src/Composer/DependencyResolver/PolicyInterface.php
index e7aaaa724..433478920 100644
--- a/src/Composer/DependencyResolver/PolicyInterface.php
+++ b/src/Composer/DependencyResolver/PolicyInterface.php
@@ -21,5 +21,5 @@ interface PolicyInterface
 {
     public function versionCompare(PackageInterface $a, PackageInterface $b, $operator);
     public function findUpdatePackages(Pool $pool, array $installedMap, PackageInterface $package);
-    public function selectPreferedPackages(Pool $pool, array $installedMap, array $literals);
+    public function selectPreferredPackages(Pool $pool, array $installedMap, array $literals);
 }
diff --git a/src/Composer/DependencyResolver/Solver.php b/src/Composer/DependencyResolver/Solver.php
index 77a945f20..6975df2cd 100644
--- a/src/Composer/DependencyResolver/Solver.php
+++ b/src/Composer/DependencyResolver/Solver.php
@@ -329,7 +329,7 @@ class Solver
     private function selectAndInstall($level, array $decisionQueue, $disableRules, Rule $rule)
     {
         // choose best package to install from decisionQueue
-        $literals = $this->policy->selectPreferedPackages($this->pool, $this->installedMap, $decisionQueue, $rule->getRequiredPackage());
+        $literals = $this->policy->selectPreferredPackages($this->pool, $this->installedMap, $decisionQueue, $rule->getRequiredPackage());
 
         $selectedLiteral = array_shift($literals);
 
diff --git a/src/Composer/Installer.php b/src/Composer/Installer.php
index 89ecd0643..7333d0d10 100644
--- a/src/Composer/Installer.php
+++ b/src/Composer/Installer.php
@@ -832,8 +832,8 @@ class Installer
                         $matches[$index] = $match->getId();
                     }
 
-                    // select prefered package according to policy rules
-                    if ($matches && $matches = $policy->selectPreferedPackages($pool, array(), $matches)) {
+                    // select preferred package according to policy rules
+                    if ($matches && $matches = $policy->selectPreferredPackages($pool, array(), $matches)) {
                         $newPackage = $pool->literalToPackage($matches[0]);
 
                         if ($task === 'force-links' && $newPackage) {
@@ -1281,7 +1281,7 @@ class Installer
     }
 
     /**
-     * Should packages be prefered in a stable version when updating?
+     * Should packages be preferred in a stable version when updating?
      *
      * @param  boolean   $preferStable
      * @return Installer
@@ -1294,7 +1294,7 @@ class Installer
     }
 
     /**
-     * Should packages be prefered in a lowest version when updating?
+     * Should packages be preferred in a lowest version when updating?
      *
      * @param  boolean   $preferLowest
      * @return Installer
diff --git a/tests/Composer/Test/DependencyResolver/DefaultPolicyTest.php b/tests/Composer/Test/DependencyResolver/DefaultPolicyTest.php
index f06ba4437..993cbffe8 100644
--- a/tests/Composer/Test/DependencyResolver/DefaultPolicyTest.php
+++ b/tests/Composer/Test/DependencyResolver/DefaultPolicyTest.php
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ class DefaultPolicyTest extends TestCase
         $literals = array($packageA->getId());
         $expected = array($packageA->getId());
 
-        $selected = $this->policy->selectPreferedPackages($this->pool, array(), $literals);
+        $selected = $this->policy->selectPreferredPackages($this->pool, array(), $literals);
 
         $this->assertEquals($expected, $selected);
     }
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ class DefaultPolicyTest extends TestCase
         $literals = array($packageA1->getId(), $packageA2->getId());
         $expected = array($packageA2->getId());
 
-        $selected = $this->policy->selectPreferedPackages($this->pool, array(), $literals);
+        $selected = $this->policy->selectPreferredPackages($this->pool, array(), $literals);
 
         $this->assertEquals($expected, $selected);
     }
@@ -74,7 +74,7 @@ class DefaultPolicyTest extends TestCase
         $literals = array($packageA1->getId(), $packageA2->getId());
         $expected = array($packageA2->getId());
 
-        $selected = $this->policy->selectPreferedPackages($this->pool, array(), $literals);
+        $selected = $this->policy->selectPreferredPackages($this->pool, array(), $literals);
 
         $this->assertEquals($expected, $selected);
     }
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ class DefaultPolicyTest extends TestCase
         $expected = array($packageA1->getId());
 
         $policy = new DefaultPolicy(true);
-        $selected = $policy->selectPreferedPackages($this->pool, array(), $literals);
+        $selected = $policy->selectPreferredPackages($this->pool, array(), $literals);
 
         $this->assertEquals($expected, $selected);
     }
@@ -103,7 +103,7 @@ class DefaultPolicyTest extends TestCase
         $literals = array($packageA1->getId(), $packageA2->getId());
         $expected = array($packageA2->getId());
 
-        $selected = $this->policy->selectPreferedPackages($this->pool, array(), $literals);
+        $selected = $this->policy->selectPreferredPackages($this->pool, array(), $literals);
 
         $this->assertEquals($expected, $selected);
     }
@@ -118,7 +118,7 @@ class DefaultPolicyTest extends TestCase
         $literals = array($packageA->getId(), $packageAInstalled->getId());
         $expected = array($packageA->getId());
 
-        $selected = $this->policy->selectPreferedPackages($this->pool, $this->mapFromRepo($this->repoInstalled), $literals);
+        $selected = $this->policy->selectPreferredPackages($this->pool, $this->mapFromRepo($this->repoInstalled), $literals);
 
         $this->assertEquals($expected, $selected);
     }
@@ -137,7 +137,7 @@ class DefaultPolicyTest extends TestCase
         $literals = array($packageA->getId(), $packageAImportant->getId());
         $expected = array($packageAImportant->getId());
 
-        $selected = $this->policy->selectPreferedPackages($this->pool, array(), $literals);
+        $selected = $this->policy->selectPreferredPackages($this->pool, array(), $literals);
 
         $this->assertEquals($expected, $selected);
     }
@@ -166,7 +166,7 @@ class DefaultPolicyTest extends TestCase
 
         $expected = array($packageAAliasImportant->getId());
 
-        $selected = $this->policy->selectPreferedPackages($this->pool, array(), $literals);
+        $selected = $this->policy->selectPreferredPackages($this->pool, array(), $literals);
 
         $this->assertEquals($expected, $selected);
     }
@@ -184,7 +184,7 @@ class DefaultPolicyTest extends TestCase
         $literals = array($packageA->getId(), $packageB->getId());
         $expected = $literals;
 
-        $selected = $this->policy->selectPreferedPackages($this->pool, array(), $literals);
+        $selected = $this->policy->selectPreferredPackages($this->pool, array(), $literals);
 
         $this->assertEquals($expected, $selected);
     }
@@ -201,7 +201,7 @@ class DefaultPolicyTest extends TestCase
         $literals = array($packageA->getId(), $packageB->getId());
         $expected = $literals;
 
-        $selected = $this->policy->selectPreferedPackages($this->pool, array(), $literals);
+        $selected = $this->policy->selectPreferredPackages($this->pool, array(), $literals);
 
         $this->assertEquals($expected, $selected);
     }
@@ -220,7 +220,7 @@ class DefaultPolicyTest extends TestCase
         $literals = array($packageA->getId(), $packageB->getId());
         $expected = $literals;
 
-        $selected = $this->policy->selectPreferedPackages($this->pool, array(), $literals, 'vendor-a/package');
+        $selected = $this->policy->selectPreferredPackages($this->pool, array(), $literals, 'vendor-a/package');
         $this->assertEquals($expected, $selected);
 
         // test with reversed order in repo
@@ -234,7 +234,7 @@ class DefaultPolicyTest extends TestCase
         $literals = array($packageA->getId(), $packageB->getId());
         $expected = $literals;
 
-        $selected = $this->policy->selectPreferedPackages($this->pool, array(), $literals, 'vendor-a/package');
+        $selected = $this->policy->selectPreferredPackages($this->pool, array(), $literals, 'vendor-a/package');
         $this->assertEquals($expected, $selected);
     }
 
@@ -259,7 +259,7 @@ class DefaultPolicyTest extends TestCase
         $literals = array($packageA1->getId(), $packageA2->getId());
         $expected = array($packageA1->getId());
 
-        $selected = $policy->selectPreferedPackages($this->pool, array(), $literals);
+        $selected = $policy->selectPreferredPackages($this->pool, array(), $literals);
 
         $this->assertEquals($expected, $selected);
     }