America's Most Misspelled Words

Language Log 2025-05-27

[This is a guest post by Rasmus Okasmets]

Analysis of Google search data for 2025 reveals the most misspelled words for each U.S. state and America.

National Spelling Bee begins at the end of May. The research is well timed.

America's most misspelled words:

Definitely – 33 500 searches.
Separate – 30 000 searches.
Necessary – 29 000 searches.
Believe – 28 500 searches.
Through – 28 000 searches.
Gorgeous – 27 000 searches.
Neighbor – 25 500 searches.
Business – 24 200 searches.
Favorite – 23 000 searches.
Restaurant – 22 500 searches.

America's most misspelled words by state:

Alabama – Different
Alaska – Tomorrow
Arizona – People
Arkansas – Quesadilla
California – Appreciation
Colorado – Sergeant
Connecticut – Schedule
Delaware – Beautiful
Florida – Compliment
Georgia – Necessary
Hawaii – Luau
Idaho – Definitely
Illinois – Congratulations
Indiana – Taught
Iowa – Through
Kansas – Different
Kentucky – People
Louisiana – Through
Maine – Pneumonia
Maryland – Character
Massachusetts – Beautiful
Michigan – Scratch
Minnesota – Successful
Mississippi – Beautiful
Missouri – Temperature
Montana – Appreciate
Nebraska – Beautiful
Nevada – School
New Hampshire – Protective
New Jersey – Congratulations
New Mexico – Appreciate
New York – Different
North Carolina – Secret
North Dakota – Daughter
Ohio – Crochet
Oklahoma – Patience
Oregon – Business
Pennsylvania – Scissors
Rhode Island – Cancelled
South Carolina – People
South Dakota – Beautiful
Tennessee – Broccoli
Texas – Protect
Utah – Definitely
Vermont – Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
Virginia – People
Washington – Appreciation
West Virginia – Beautiful
Wisconsin – Different
Wyoming – Beautiful

A spokesperson for WordUnscrambler.pro commented on the findings: "This year's most misspelled words violate many phonics rules, contain silent letters, contain double letters, originate from other languages and use tricky suffixes. Words that contain silent letters: scissors, through, pneumonia, character, daughter. Words with irregular vowel sounds: different, people, through, character, daughter. Words that use tricky suffixes like -ture, -ate, -ence: temperature, character, appreciate, patience, compliment, protective. Words that contain difficult consonant blends: scratch, school, schedule, cancelled. Availability of autocorrect in all devices results in misspelling common words like 'beautiful' or 'necessary'. Studies suggest heavy reliance on autocorrect weakens spelling skills over time. Some researchers call it digital amnesia. We simply forget things that we delegate to technology. Misspellings might be on the rise not because we know less, but because we need to know less."

Research was conducted by word unscrambling experts at WordUnscrambler.pro.

We analyzed Jan 1, 2025 – May 19, 2025 search data from Google Trends for "How do you spell" and "How to spell".

Methodology: We used Google Trends to discover the most misspelled words and Ahrefs to find the number of searches. Americas most misspelled words can be discovered in Google Trends by searching for "How do you spell" and "How to spell". Ahrefs shows many variations of misspelling searches like 'spell beautiful' or 'how do I spell beautiful '. We added up 120 search variations of top spelling searches.