Misspelled words 2025: Which common word stumps New Yorkers?
Originally published on Staten Island Advance/SILive.com
Just in time to help contestants and viewers fix their spelling mistakes before the National Spelling Bee began at the end of May, wordunscrambler.pro released the words most commonly misspelled by Americans.
In a study conducted by wordunscrambler.pro, it was found that most New Yorkers fail to spell the word “different” correctly. With only three syllables, nine letters, three vowels and six consonants, “different” is the word that Big Apple residents have the toughest time spelling.
New Yorkers are not alone: other Americans are stumped by words that start with “D.” According to the study, “definitely” is America’s most misspelled word.
“Misspellings might be on the rise not because we know less, but because we need to know less,” said a spokesperson for WorldUnscrumbler.pro. “This year’s most misspelled words violate many phonics rules, contain silent letters, contain double letters, originate from other languages and use tricky suffixes.”
Here are the top 10 most misspelled words in America (starting with the most searches):
Definitely
Separate
Necessary
Believe
Through
Gorgeous
Neighbor
Business
Favorite
Restaurant
National Spelling Bee
Since 1925, the National Spelling Bee has created a competitive environment of avid spellers. The event was launched by the Louisville Courier-Journal as a way for them to encourage other newspapers to gather their winners in a national competition.
Now, the event includes 243 spellers that represent—at least one—from each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, as well as the U.S. territories like the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana. Spellers also come from Canada, the Bahamas, Germany, Ghana, Kuwait and Nigeria.
The most misspelled word
The study revealed that 33,500 Google searches were behind the most misspelled words in America.
As a runner up for the most misspelled word of the United States, “separate” received 30,000 searches, according to wordunscrambler.pro.
Using search data from Google Trends, in the time range between Jan 1, 2025 to May 19, 2025, the study looked at searches like “How do you spell ______” and “How to spell ______.”
Other search variations were included in the study, including up to 120 different search variations—accounting for misspelling on the Google search bar.
More state data
Other states also misspell common words. New Jersey and Illinois both commonly misspell “congratulations,” according to study.
Seven states: Delaware, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nebraska, South Dakota, West Virginia and Wyoming all misspell “beautiful” more than any other word.
The misspelling of common words like “beautiful” and “necessary” could be credited to a heavy reliance on autocorrect that many devices offer, the study said.
Researchers define this as “digital amnesia;” the forgetting of tasks—like how to spell—because technology does it for us instead.
