Spelling Shocker: The Word North Dakotans Can't Get Right!

Bruhat Soma won the 2024 Scripps National Spelling Bee. Bruhat, a 12-year-old from St. Petersburg, Florida, competed in the second-ever Spell-off to win the Bee. His winning word is "abseil," meaning "a descent in mountaineering by means of a rope looped over a projection above."

To celebrate the 96th annual Scripps spelling competition, Google took a look at the top words Americans struggle with. They posted a map highlighting the most common "How to spell" searches in each of the 50 states. Here are some of the most embarrassing examples, featuring words with six letters or less:

California can't spell "pretty."
New Mexico struggles with "quiet."
North Dakota's dirty secret is they can't spell "secret."
Kansas finds "chaos" challenging.
Oklahoma doesn't know how to spell "animal."
Michigan can't spell "cousin."
Ohio struggles with "equal."
Tennessee can't spell "field."
Maine is confused by "heard" (as in "I heard you"), often confusing it with "herd" (as in a herd of cattle).
Wisconsin can't spell "ally."
Virginia can't spell "said."

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Some additional highlights: Minnesota needs help spelling "clothes," South Dakota struggles with "beautiful," and Kentucky definitely can't spell "definitely." Indiana is jealous of those who can spell "jealous," Mississippi gets nervous spelling "nervous," and New Hampshire is tortured by the word "tortured." Many people in Wyoming seem to need to spell "corduroy" for some reason.

Montana has problems spelling "privilege," and interestingly, three states can't spell the names of other states: Utah can't spell "Mississippi," Nebraska can't spell "California," and despite being neighbors, Maryland can't spell "Pennsylvania." Check out more results here.

While it might be surprising to discover the word that North Dakotans struggle to spell, it's important to remember that spelling challenges are common and often humorous. And it's always fascinating to see what the winning word is each year in the Scripps Spelling Bee.

(Bonus points: Can you spell the winning word from last year's Scripps Spelling Bee?)

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Gallery Credit: Rob Carroll