We’ve all been there: Violently ill with elbows on your knees and pants around your ankles, vigorously tapping on a phone screen looking for any advice to alleviate the symptoms. Then suddenly you ask yourself, “How the hell do I spell ‘diarrhoea’?”
Image: AP
That is, if you’re in New Hampshire. Maybe it’s “pneumonia” in Maine. Or “bananas” in New Mexico. We all need to know how to spell things, sometimes.
In honour of the Scripps National Spelling Bee in the US this week, Google Trends put together this graphic showing each US state’s “most misspelled word”, based on searches for “how to spell x” in 2017:
We’ve made a few corrections to the legend. This is the one to use pic.twitter.com/0Z8fUlzmHc
— GoogleTrends (@GoogleTrends) May 30, 2017
A few interesting things here. Georgia wants to know how to spell “gray”, according to the map, but that’s perfectly reasonable. “Grey” is also an accepted though less common spelling, according to Merriam-Webster (it’s “grey” in Australia).
What else? Wisconsinites aren’t sure about how to spell their own state, which is very, very sad. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious is a nonsense word by definition, why are so many people looking for it? And I’m so sorry to everyone in New Hampshire who thought that knowing the spelling of “diarrhea” (“diarrhoea” in Australia) was more important than just Googling the misspelled version to find a cure.
But don’t feel too guilty, because Google Trends couldn’t even spell everything right on its original graphic (though the account has since posted a correction).
America’s most misspelled words – it’s #spellingbee week and we mapped top “how to spell” searches by state#dataviz pic.twitter.com/oHkRHj8Eku
— GoogleTrends (@GoogleTrends) May 30, 2017
Anyway, here’s the full list (copied from USA Today to save time).
Alabama: Pneumonia
Alaska: Schedule
Arizona: Tomorrow
Arkansas: Chihuahua
California: Beautiful
Colorado: Tomorrow
Connecticut: Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
Delaware: Hallelujah
Washington, DC: Ninety
Florida: Receipt
Georgia: Gray
Hawaii: People
Idaho: Quote
Illinois: Pneumonia
Indiana: Hallelujah
Iowa: Vacuum
Kansas: Diamond
Kentucky: Beautiful
Louisiana: Giraffe
Maine: Pneumonia
Maryland: Special
Massachusetts: License
Michigan: Pneumonia
Minnesota: Beautiful
Mississippi: Nanny
Missouri: Maintenance
Montana: Surprise
Nebraska: Suspicious
Nevada: Available
New Hampshire: Difficult
New Jersey: Twelve
New Mexico: Bananas
New York: Beautiful
North Carolina: Angel
North Dakota: Dilemma
Ohio: Beautiful
Oklahoma: Patient
Oregon: Sense
Pennsylvania: Sauerkraut
Rhode Island: Liar
South Carolina: Chihuahua
South Dakota: College
Tennessee: Chaos
Texas: Maintenance
Utah: Disease
Vermont: Europe
Virginia: Delicious
Washington: Pneumonia
West Virginia: Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
Wisconsin: Wisconsin
Wyoming: Priority
[Twitter via USA Today]