Many studies have reported an age-related decline in the ability to spell words correctly. The aim of this study was to investigate the deterioration on retrieving orthographic knowledge in 64 normal elderly Korean persons. The subjects were 64 in total: they were composed of 22 persons in their 50s, 20 persons in their 60s, and 22 persons in their 70s or older. We instructed them to write from a dictation of 60 words stimuli (20 regular words, 20 irregular words, 20 nonwords). Older adults made more errors than younger adults, and the age-related decline in performance was greater for irregular than regular and nonwords. With respect to the error pattern in the irregular words, the subjects showed more phonological plausible errors than phonological implausible errors. The number of self-correction was high in nonwords. Based on the results, we found that aging differentially affects the retrieval of orthographic knowledge on regular, irregular and nonwords.