What word do Virginians find hardest to pronounce?
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RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) -- We've all gotten tongue-tied by a hard-to-pronounce word at some point in our lives -- but which word do Virginians find particularly challenging?
Researchers with Unscrambler.com used Google Trends data from Jan. 1 through Oct. 27 to determine the words that have stumped Americans the most so far in 2025.
At the state level, Virginians asked Google how to say the word "adolescence" -- pronounced ad-oh-LES-ens -- the most this year, per Unscrambler.com's analysis.
Those in the nearby states of Maryland, North Carolina and West Virginia struggled with the words omniscient (OM-NISH-unt), Raleigh (RAW-lee) and açai (ah-SIGH-ee), respectively.
Nationwide, here's the top 12 hardest-to-pronounce words this year, according to Unscrambler.com:
- Gyro (YEE-roh) -- 312,000 searches
- Worcestershire (WUSS-ter-sheer) -- 300,000 searches
- Açai (ah-SIGH-ee) -- 192,000 seaches
- Qatar (KAH-tar) -- 180,000 searches
- Dachshund (DAKS-hund) -- 156,000 searches
- Niche (NEESH) -- 142,000 searches
- Aoife (EE-fah) -- 84,000 searches
- Charcuterie (shar-KOO-tuh-ree) -- 72,000 searches
- Paczki (POONCH-kee) -- 36,000 searches
- Primeval (pry-MEE-vul) -- 26,000 searches
- Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (soo-per-kal-uh-fraj-uh-lis-tik-ek-spee-al-uh-DOH-shus) -- 24,000 searches
- Hozier (HO-zee-er) -- 21,000 searches
A spokesperson for Unscrambler.com said that exposure to new words through media, music, pop culture and other means naturally makes people curious.
More than that, many tie appropriate pronunciation to perceived intelligence -- meaning the average person is likely worried that, by mispronouncing a word, they may seem stupid.
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However, over 60% of English speakers participating in a Cambridge University linguistics survey admitted they regularly mispronounce at least one common word -- so maybe we should all be a little more patient with ourselves.
