To be fair, as I look at the words that other states seem to have plenty of difficulty spelling, we here in Illinois can take pride in the fact that we can spell the country's most misspelled word better than 12 other states.

That word, according to USA Today in their piece "'Quarantine' or 'corn teen': These Are The Most Googled Misspelled Words By State," is quarantine.

Some folks apparently make a fine living analyzing Google Trends data, and they decided to take a look at words people search for the most when they type in the words "how to spell." They just looked at one year, going from March of 2020 through March of 2021.

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As I mentioned, quarantine is the the number-one most misspelled word across the United States, with residents of 12 states having enough trouble with it that they went to Google for help.

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Let's face it, quarantine is a tough word. Especially since it's been rarely used since it came to prominence during the polio epidemic that took place in the early to middle part of the last century. So, if you've had problems spelling that word out, it's completely understandable.

The second-most misspelled word in the U.S. over the last year has nothing to do with the pandemic. The word is "favorite." Seven states had problems with whether or not to British-up the word by adding a "u" to it.

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Here in Illinois, our most misspelled word is not only pandemic related, it's the name of the bug that got all this stuff rolling: "Coronavirus." I don't know how you go about taking on that word, but I just think of Corona Beer. I just dump the beer and replace it with virus, since my stupid computer gives me one of those squiggly red lines under the word that indicate a misspelling every time I type it.

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Maybe you're a great speller, and you don't need Google to spell anything for you. How are you with pronunciations?

According to a piece at GoodHousekeeping.com, these are some of the toughest "everyday" words for people to pronounce:

  • Anathema
  • Anemone
  • February
  • Often
  • Temperature
  • Worcestershire

We've all got that one word (or maybe a few more) that we personally have trouble with that perhaps no one else we know does. For me, that word is actually the name of a Texas city. "Galveston." 

You may be thinking that the word I have trouble with is laughably easy, and you would be right. But, easy or not, I still have a tendency to screw it up.

KEEP READING: See notable new words that were coined the year you were born

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