South Africa's most misspelled words in 2026

Recent data highlights the words that challenge South Africans the most.

Experts at Unscramblerer.com conducted an in-depth analysis of Google search trends for 2026, identifying the top 30 words that prompt people to seek spelling help online.

From January 1 to June 8, 2026, researchers examined search queries containing phrases like "How do you spell" and "How to spell" to pinpoint common spelling difficulties nationwide.

South Africa's Top 30 Most Misspelled Words

Here is the full list of the top 30 most searched-for spellings in South Africa:

1. Colour (124,800 searches)
2. Favourite (85,200 searches)
3. Beautiful (84,000 searches)
4. License (72,000 searches)
5. Weird (70,800 searches)
6. Because (68,400 searches)
7. Auntie (62,400 searches)
8. Birthday (57,000 searches)
9. Surprise (56,400 searches)
10. Jewellery (55,200 searches)
11. Definitely (54,100 searches)
12. Weather (52,800 searches)
13. Queue (50,400 searches)
14. Business (49,200 searches)
15. Tomorrow (48,500 searches)
16. Neighbour (45,600 searches)
17. Quite (44,400 searches)
18. Received (43,800 searches)
19. Bougie (40,800 searches)
20. Gorgeous (38,400 searches)
21. Croissant (37,200 searches)
22. Necessary (31,200 searches)
23. Honour (28,000 searches)
24. Daughter (27,600 searches)
25. Colleague (21,600 searches)
26. Conscious (20,400 searches)
27. Apologise (19,300 searches)
28. Scissors (19,200 searches)
29. Diarrhoea (18,900 searches)
30. Unfortunately (15,300 searches)

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