The most mispronounced word for Californians in 2025 – based on a study of Google searches – was one I've never heard and would undoubtedly mispronounce: Kali Uchis.
If you said "Kali Uchis" to me, I'd likely think it was the name of a member of Destiny's Child or a social media influencer ("Did you know that Kali Uchis has 100 million followers on her TikTok channel?"). Or maybe an exotic food ("I'll have the Kali Uchis with avocado on the side")
Instead, Kali Uchis is apparently a . . . wait a minute, Kali Uchis is a singer! Who knew? I was making a joke and it turns out I was right! According to Google, Kali Uchis is a singer-songwriter who won a Grammy Award in 2021 and has won multiple awards since then. Presumably, my kids and grandchildren know Kali Uchis, while I'm suggesting she's a food.
My apologies, Kali.
Anyway, the people at unscrambler.com (your source to get eggs back in their shells) released a list in late 2025 of the most mispronounced words in each state. As always, it's instructive to see what those words are, but it's more fun to ridicule states where people search Google to learn how to pronounce common words.
Because it seems reasonable to me that people in my state don't know how to pronounce Kali Uchis, but it's insane that people in Iowa have to ask how to pronounce dachshund (do they think it's DAUSH-und? Have they never heard the word?) or that people in Minnesota need to Google how to pronounce thyme ("Could you get me some Thime?" "Sure. And here's some 'jarlic' to go with it.").
Any comparison of states leads us to find other states that are somehow worse than ours (most common stereotype: Mississippi is always last. But in this case, the word Mississippians most searched to learn how to pronounce was chinoiserie [SHIN-wah-zuh-ree], which I also presume is another member of Destiny's Child).
This year, the most mystifying state is North Carolina, where people most searched for how to pronounce Raleigh, which is both easy to say and is the capital city of the state (I guess they needed to decide if it's Rah-lay or Rah-lee?). That's like Californians searching for how to pronounce Sacramento. Come on, North Carolina! You can be better!
Other states were amusing, such as Wyoming (which needed help for "mayonnaise") and Virginia (which needed help for "adolescence" – often pronounced "teen.").
Of course, this isn't science. It's Google and reflects the number of people who search "how to pronounce . . .", which is likely a subset of our nation featuring people who want to say words correctly and don't know how to say mayonnaise or Raleigh.
The national list may be more helpful. The most-searched "how do I pronounce" words across the nation were gyro (I could use some help), Worcestershire sauce (I say "sauce"), acai (which I get wrong 75% of the time) and Qatar (which Google says is pronounced "KAH-ter" and I say as "CUT-ter.").
What's the takeaway? Well, there are a few:
1. There's no shame in asking how to pronounce a word.
2. Many words are not pronounced the way you'd think, so "sounding it out" doesn't always work.
3. At least you can pronounce mayonnaise and Raleigh without having to Google them.
Oh, and one more. Kali Uchis is pronounced KAH-lee OO-chees.
Reach Brad Stanhope at bradstanhope@outlook.com.
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