‘Congradulations’: The Most Commonly Misspelled Words in the U.S.

Spelling errors are a fact of life, with even the most careful and literate among us sometimes forgetting embarrass has two Rs and that not everyone can get the “jist” of spelling gist.

Recently, grammar hub and AI writing platform QuillBot examined Google search data to try and determine some of the most commonly misspelled words in the United States. Their methodology involved taking 150 of the most challenging words and then looking to see how often Google users were entering them incorrectly. The result: 15 words that tend to trip people up more than others.

Below you’ll find the correct word, the misspelled version, and how often Google users searched for it in a given month.

1. Calendar // Calender: 257,000
2. Arctic // Artic: 87,000
3. Niece // Neice: 73,000
4. Receive // Recieve: 62,000
5. Separate // Seperate: 33,000
6. Rhythm // Rythm: 30,000
7. Believe // Belive: 25,000
8. Connecticut // Conneticut: 20,0000
9. Occurred // Occured: 18,000
10. Congratulations // Congradulations: 17,000
11. Until // Untill: 16,000
12. License // Licence: 15,000
13. Broccoli // Brocoli: 13,000
14. Spaghetti // Spagetti: 13,000
15. Siege // Seige: 13,000

The 12th most misspelled word, license, comes with a caveat: licence is the accepted spelling in the UK and other English-speaking countries when it’s used as a noun.

Should you find yourself committing spelling offenses, take heart. When Pride and Prejudice author Jane Austen was 14, she finished a manuscript titled Love and Freindship.