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The words every state finds hardest to spell

Libby Nelson is Vox's policy editor, leading coverage of how government action and inaction shape American life. Libby has more than a decade of policy journalism experience, including at Inside Higher Ed and Politico. She joined Vox in 2014.

As the National Spelling Bee gets underway this week, Vocativ took a look at what words residents of all 50 states are most likely to try to spell-check using Google.

Hannukah is a popular option (possibly because there is no one right spelling). Fifty Shades of Grey seems to have sparked some confusion about how the color is spelled. Delaware is, alarmingly, Googling how to correctly spell a type of foot fungus. And Maine is awfully frustreted — frusterated — oh forget it — by this spelling stuff:

(Vocativ)

Why is English spelling so difficult? Partly due to the Great Vowel Shift, explained in 25 maps that explain the English language.

Update: It looks like the chart itself may have a misspelling where Louisiana is concerned.

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