What’s one word that you can’t seem to spell right? (For me, since I do a lot of writing about music, I’m often stumped by “Pharrell,” as in Pharrell Williams, the dude behind “Happy” and a ton of popular songs you’ve definitely heard. I always forget how many Rs and Ls there are, but I think it’s finally beginning to stick in my head.) I bring this up because Google Trends recently shared a pretty interesting infographic map; they’ve calculated which words people from every state have the hardest time spelling.
Are these America's most misspelled words? Check out the top 'how to spell' searches by state, just in time for the #spellingbee 2018 finals.#dataviz #maps pic.twitter.com/uTb7ynYcv5
— GoogleTrends (@GoogleTrends) May 29, 2018
The data comes from people searching “how to spell [word]” on Google. From the looks of it, there are a lot of people out there making sure that their love notes (or slides into DMs) are free of typos, because “beautiful” was the word whose spelling was most frequently searched in 11 states, by far the most of any word represented.
The second most searched word proves that there’s still plenty of whimsy (and fans of Mary Poppins) out there: “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.” The only other words that top the charts in multiple states are “resume” (three states), “canceled,” “sincerely,” and “schedule” (two states).
Other interesting picks: Louisiana struggles with “favorite,” probably because of the French influence confusing them into spelling it “favourite.” Florida is also trying to shed its wacky “Florida man” news story reputation with fancy appetizers, or “hors d’ouevres.”
What word always stumps you? Does it match up with what other people in your state are often challenged by? Let us is on your spelling woes down in the comments!
Featured image: lucianvenutian/Flickr
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- All those Privacy Policy emails have inspired a terrific meme
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