New Yorkers Keep Googling How to Pronounce This Word

America’s Most Mispronounced Word Is a Mouthful

You ever look at a word and think, There is absolutely no way those letters make that sound?

Welcome to Worcestershire sauce, America's most mispronounced word. And if you've ever stood in the kitchen trying to say it, you're not alone. Apparently, thousands of Americans are Googling it.

Worcestershire sauce tops the list, with more than 321,000 searches from people trying to figure out how to pronounce it. It's supposedly pronounced “WUUS-ter-sheer.”

There are WAY more letters in that word to be pronounced like that! I just call it the stuff you put in Bloody Marys. Much easier that way.

a bottle of wine

New York Has Its Own Pronunciation Problem

Here in New York, the word people most often struggle to say correctly is Iran. It's commonly pronounced “ih-RAN,” not "I-ran."

So while the rest of America is battling a condiment, New Yorkers are looking up how to say the name of a country.

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I wonder if the rest of the country struggles with the Empire State. New York has some towns that look like somebody dropped a Scrabble board and decided to make it official.

• Skaneateles – Pronounced “Skinny-AT-las”
• Canajoharie – Pronounced “Can-uh-juh-HAIR-ee”
• Canandaigua – Pronounced “Can-uh-DAY-gwuh”
• Coxsackie – Pronounced “Cook-SOCK-ee”
• Schoharie – Pronounced “skoh-HAIR-ee”
• Schaghticoke – Pronounced “skat-uh-COAK”
• Shawangunk – Pronounced “SHAWN-gum”
• Irondequoit – Pronounced “uh-RON-duh-kwit”
• Cutchogue – Pronounced “CUTCH-og”
• Schenectady – Pronounced “skuh-NEK-tuh-dee”
• Poughquag – Pronounced “POO-kwag”
• Yaphank – Pronounced “YAP-hank”

Historical map of new york state, lake ontario, and pennsylvania

It's Not Just the Sauce

Unscramblerer.com used Google Trends data to see which words people were searching for help pronouncing.

Gyro, dachshund, niche, and Porsche were at the top of the list.

The problem is that English doesn't always play by the rules. Sometimes letters are silent, sometimes they make sounds you'd never expect, and sometimes a word looks like it should take 10 minutes to pronounce. No wonder it's the hardest language to learn.

What's the word that trips you up? The one you avoid saying because you're just not willing to risk embarrassing yourself? Let us know inside the app.