Photo by Lukas Blazek
Article courtesy of Unscramblerer.com.
Analysis of Google search data for 2026 reveals the most misspelled words for Michigan and America.
The National Spelling Bee was held from May 26 to May 28, so this data is fitting.
America’s most misspelled words:
- Bougie – 134 400 searches.
- Favorite – 128 400 searches.
- Through – 127 200 searches.
- Business – 123 600 searches.
- Tomorrow – 121 200 searches.
- Because – 106 800 searches.
- Definitely – 104 400 searches.
- Beautiful – 102 000 searches.
- Niece – 100 800 searches.
- Separate – 98 400 searches.
America’s most misspelled words by state:
- Alabama – Business
- Alaska – Beautiful
- Arizona – Through
- Arkansas – Beautiful
- California – Different
- Colorado – Color
- Connecticut – Recommend
- Delaware – Beautiful
- Florida – School
- Georgia – Chihuahua
- Hawaii – Appreciate
- Idaho – Necessary
- Illinois – Color
- Indiana – Because
- Iowa – Character
- Kansas – Schedule
- Kentucky – Definitely
- Louisiana – Restaurant
- Maine – Definitely
- Maryland – Business
- Massachusetts – Schedule
- Michigan – Which
- Minnesota – Ukulele
- Mississippi – Business
- Missouri – Because
- Montana – Appreciate
- Nebraska – Congratulations
- Nevada – Teacher
- New Hampshire – Bougie
- New Jersey – Because
- New Mexico – Sincerely
- New York – Judgement
- North Carolina – Spaghetti
- North Dakota – Adios
- Ohio – Because
- Oklahoma – Chihuahua
- Oregon – Diamond
- Pennsylvania – Maintenance
- Rhode Island – Bougie
- South Carolina – Quite
- South Dakota – Congratulations
- Tennessee – Through
- Texas – Recycle
- Utah – Basically
- Vermont – Beautiful
- Virginia – Spaghetti
- Washington – Fiance
- West Virginia – Beautiful
- Wisconsin – Business
- Wyoming – Chihuahua
A spokesperson for Unscramblerer.com commented on the findings:
“Analyzing Americas list of most misspelled words for 2026 we found silent letters, irregular vowel sounds, tricky suffixes, difficult consonant blends, schwa sounds, weird double letters, French and Spanish loanwords that break every phonics rule. English spelling and pronunciation is often irregular. Words that contain silent letters: business (silent i), through (silent gh), schedule (silent c), character (silent h), beautiful (silent eau). Words with irregular vowel sounds: through (ou), beautiful (eau), because (au), restaurant (au), bougie (ou). Words that use tricky suffixes like -ly, -ate, -ent, -ious: definitely (-itely), beautiful (-iful), necessary (-ary), maintenance (-ance), appreciate (-ciate), congratulations (-ulations). Words that contain difficult consonant blends: school (sch), quite (qu), spaghetti (sp), chihuahua (ch), through (thr), which (wh). Words with double consonants: business (ss), tomorrow (rr, mm), recommend (mm), different (ff), necessary (ss). Studies show that reliance on autocorrect and AI deteriorates the authors spelling ability over time. To combat this digital amnesia we encourage everybody to search for the correct spelling of the word when a feeling of doubt arises. This becomes an educational moment. As the saying goes, use it or lose it.”
Research was conducted by word unscrambling experts at Unscramblerer.com.
We analyzed Jan 1, 2026 – May 18, 2026 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 favorite” or “how do I spell tomorrow”. We added up 120 search variations of top spelling searches.