Here are Missouri’s 10 Most Often Misspelled Words

My namesake in the movies is famous for saying "Let's have a spelling contest" which is ironic since I am not the world (or state's) best speller, but I did grow up in Missouri which makes me somewhat of an expert of the 10 words most often spelled incorrectly in my birth state.

True story: I was competing in the 6th grade spelling contest at Mark Twain Elementary in Hannibal and made the final round. (Go me!) Unfortunately, my luck ran out when the teacher asked me to spell "surprise". Spoiler Alert: I forgot there were two "r's" in surprise. That being said, a spokesperson from Unscrambler.com reached out to me and shared the 10 words most often misspelled in Missouri. Let's begin.

The Unscrambler guy added this about the research they did:

"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."

Thanks to Unscrambler for reaching out to me for this fun spelling (or lack thereof) exercise. More proof that you can never stop learning.