WASHINGTON — The Scripps National Spelling Bee is upon us.
The annual celebration of sesquipedalia (Definition, please? “Very long words“) usually features some real head-scratchers. Last year’s winning words, for example, were “Feldenkrais” and “gesellschaft.” (You’ll have to look those up on your own time).
Still, most of us just struggle with the basics.
How basic?
In D.C., Maryland and Virginia, the most searched for word spellings are “ninety,” “special” and “delicious,” respectively.
That’s according to a list released by Google on Tuesday showing “America’s most misspelled words” based on the most popular “how to spell” searches on the site.
We’ve made a few corrections to the legend. This is the one to use pic.twitter.com/0Z8fUlzmHc
— GoogleTrends (@GoogleTrends) May 30, 2017
In no particular order, here are some other interesting spelling stumpers.
People in California, Minnesota, Ohio, Kentucky and New York were most boggled by “beautiful.”
Spellings for “Hallelujah” showed up in search results in Indiana and Delaware and for “angel” in North Carolina.
It’s the word “maintenance” that sent spellers in Texas searching on Google.
Google users in Connecticut and West Virginia, those overachievers, most frequently sought spellings for the 34-letter “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” of “Mary Poppins” fame.
Common ailments also made the list. “Pneumonia” shows up in Washington, Massachusetts, Michigan and Alabama.
“Diarrhea” was No. 1 — or, well, the most searched-for word — in New Hampshire. And the spelling for just plain old “disease” is the top search in Utah.
The shortest stumper: Google users in Rhode Island were apparently flummoxed by the four-letter “liar.”
Also, shout out to Wisconsin, where the most sought-after spelling was the name of the state.
Snark aside, spelling is truly the great humbler. For example, you may think Google knows all, but even the geniuses there had to release an updated version of their list after the first one contained a misspelling of the word “ninety.”
