SC folks have the most trouble spelling these 10 words, new study shows. Can you spell them?

We’ve all been there before: double-checking how to spell a word we should have mastered by now. If you feel silly Googling how to spell a word correctly, know you’re not alone.

According to a recent survey from Mondly, a language learning platform, millions of people search online for how to use words properly each year.

Studying the most frequently searched words on Google, Mondly created a ranking of the most confusing words to spell in each state.

Here’s what you should know:

Study methodology

Mondly used data from Google Keyword Planner from April 2025 to March 2026 in each state across the country to find the words people have the most trouble spelling.

As a baseline, the study started off with a list of 389 words, and put them through the Google Ads tool. The number of searches for each phrase was found in each state and in the U.S. overall. These figures were then combined by word to get the total number of spelling searches in each area.

Some words were removed from the ranking. Three words (a, does, spelling) were excluded because their searches were predominantly Google autocomplete suggestions and not spelling queries, according to the study.

Four words were also excluded because they returned duplicate search results across all areas and were effectively identical to other words. The words were: cancellation, it, cardiology and pyjama. The words that remained in the ranking were: canceled, its, cardiologist and pajama.

Once those words were taken out, 382 words remained in the ranking.

Here are the words South Carolinians have the most trouble spelling:

Top 10 words searched in SC

Whether you’ve looked up these words or not, people in SC find these to be the most troubling. Each word is paired with its total yearly spelling searches in SC.

• #1. Gray: 13,890
• #2. Canceled: 13,350
• #3. Dictionary: 11,910
• #4. Receipt: 8,870
• #5. Niece: 8,570
• #6. Received: 8,260
• #7. Schedule: 7,920
• #8. Congratulations: 7,470
• #9. Friend: 6,860
• #10. Appreciate: 6,770

Gray was ranked first in half of the nation’s states, such as Georgia, Texas and North Carolina. Canceled ranks nationally in the 25 other states, including California, Florida and New York.

“There was a stark geographic split between which states searched for canceled or gray most,” said a language learning specialist at Mondly. “Canceled dominated all of the Northeast and most of the Midwest and Southwest, while gray ranked top from Georgia in the South to Washington in the Northwest.”

Here are the words with the most searches nationally:

Top 10 words searched nationally

All of SC’s most searched words are also in this list, except for Pneumonia. Other than that, the only difference is the rankings for each word.

• 1. Canceled: 834,000
• 2. Gray: 811,500
• 3. Dictionary: 554,920
• 4. Receipt: 506,000
• 5. Received: 502,500
• 6. Congratulations: 388,110
• 7. Schedule: 384,200
• 8. Pneumonia: 379,600
• 9. Appreciate: 362,900
• 10. Niece: 358,540

This story was originally published May 12, 2026 at 6:00 AM with the headline "SC folks have the most trouble spelling these 10 words, new study shows. Can you spell them?."