# Find the most prolific misspelling
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-the-most-prolific-misspelling/117182
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [July 3, 2002, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-the-most-prolific-misspelling/117182 "2002-07-03T10:58:22Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2002, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-the-most-prolific-misspelling/117182/1 "2002-07-03T10:58:22Z")
OK, this thread is a competition.
You have to type a deliberately misspelt (misspelled?) word into Google and post the number of hits (the winner being the greatest number, of course.
A few ground rules:
Single words only, no phrases or grammatical stuff
The word must be three letters or more
There should be nomore than two valid instances of the word on the first page of results (for example ‘yopu’ - a common misspelling of ‘you’ is disqualified)
Copy and paste the result bar into the thread, like so:
Searched the web for acomodate. Results 1 - 10 of about 2,830
or
Searched the web for disatisfaction. Results 1 - 10 of about 3,140
over to you.
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### Author:  [@Aro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aro)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2002, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-the-most-prolific-misspelling/117182/2 "2002-07-03T10:59:58Z")
**fotball** - 1 to 410,000 approx.
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### Author:  [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2002, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-the-most-prolific-misspelling/117182/3 "2002-07-03T11:04:23Z")
I was going to try **teh** , but all I got were valid abbreviations. Damn.
Then I was going to try **fcuk** , but a large number of the hits were deliberate misspellings (or adverts for French Connection UK).
So here goes:
**definately** : results 1 - 10 of about 498,000
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### Author:  [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2002, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-the-most-prolific-misspelling/117182/4 "2002-07-03T11:13:42Z")
Searched the web for color. Results 1 - 10 of about 31,300,000.
What? Americans are supposed to spell it like that? Yeah, right 🙂
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### Author:  [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2002, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-the-most-prolific-misspelling/117182/5 "2002-07-03T11:27:17Z")
[194,000 for “enviroment”](http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=enviroment&btnG=Google+Search&meta=). The other common version, “envroment”, unfortunately disqualified due to too many people using it on purpose.
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### Author:  [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2002, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-the-most-prolific-misspelling/117182/6 "2002-07-03T11:42:21Z")
[145,000 for “refered”](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=refered)
Not bad, I mess that one up all the time. 🙂
[109,000 for “wonderfull”](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=wonderfull)
**Crusoe** ’s got us all beat. _Definately_ is definitely gonna win. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Sparrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparrow)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2002, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-the-most-prolific-misspelling/117182/7 "2002-07-03T12:16:41Z")
Searched the web for seperate. Results 1 - 10 of about 608,000
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### Author:  [@Coldfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coldfire)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2002, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-the-most-prolific-misspelling/117182/8 "2002-07-03T12:28:06Z")
Good one, Sparrow!
[322,000 for “loosing”](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=loosing)
Surprisingly, “looser” got less hits.
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### Author:  [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2002, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-the-most-prolific-misspelling/117182/9 "2002-07-03T13:08:50Z")
Searched the web for **affraid**. Results 1 - 10 of about 26,000
I see this one all the time, though I knew it wouldn’t be enough to top any of the others that have been posted here.
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### Author:  [@ForgottenLore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ForgottenLore)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2002, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-the-most-prolific-misspelling/117182/10 "2002-07-03T13:44:26Z")
I always used to spell “refrigerator” as “refridgerator”, but that only pulled in about 30,000 hits. I guess it’s just me.
[265,000 for realy.](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=realy)
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### Author:  [@MachV](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MachV)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2002, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-the-most-prolific-misspelling/117182/11 "2002-07-03T14:01:09Z")
Darn. **Goverment** only got 289,000. I was so sure I would win with that. I was, however, very amused at one site offering “goverment” grants.
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### Author:  [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2002, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-the-most-prolific-misspelling/117182/12 "2002-07-03T14:05:38Z")
\> **Thier** : 564,000
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### Author:  [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2002, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-the-most-prolific-misspelling/117182/13 "2002-07-03T14:06:10Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Coldfire \*
> **[145,000 for “refered”](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=refered)
> Not bad, I mess that one up all the time. 🙂**
Not to be smart or anything, but… “refered” could be a misspelling for either “referred” or “refereed”, couldn’t it? 😃
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2002, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-the-most-prolific-misspelling/117182/14 "2002-07-03T14:07:27Z")
Searched the web for “cannnot”. Results 1 - 10 of about 10,300
Searched the web for decieve. Results 1 - 10 of about 12,400
Searched the web for wieght. Results 1 - 10 of about 39,200.
Searched the web for waht. Results 1 - 10 of about 48,000
Searched the web for veiw. Results 1 - 10 of about 69,300
Searched the web for freind. Results 1 - 10 of about 85,300
Searched the web for wierd. Results 1 - 10 of about 340,000
Searched the web for recieve. Results 1 - 10 of about 522,000
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2002, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-the-most-prolific-misspelling/117182/15 "2002-07-03T14:10:38Z")
I was sure ‘pron’ was going to be up there too, but it was only 229,000
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### Author:  [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2002, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-the-most-prolific-misspelling/117182/16 "2002-07-03T14:29:24Z")
\> **independant** : 302,000
Heh, how about this:
\> **dont** (no apostrophe): 9,500,000
(yes, I know, it’s more than one word really)
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### Author:  [@Aro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aro)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2002, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-the-most-prolific-misspelling/117182/17 "2002-07-03T14:41:02Z")
Sure this doesn’t count, but **kool** hits 795,000 approx.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2002, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-the-most-prolific-misspelling/117182/18 "2002-07-03T14:41:28Z")
[nitpick]since _[dependant](http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=dependant)_ is a valid variant of \*dependent[/]i, _Independant_ ought to be a valid spelling, didn’t it?[/nitpick]
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### Author:  [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2002, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-the-most-prolific-misspelling/117182/19 "2002-07-03T14:41:38Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Aro \*
> \*\ ***fotball** - 1 to 410,000 approx. \*\*
Foul! That’s how you spell it in Norway.
709,000 for **occured**. Good old computer programmers that can’t spell.
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### Author:  [@Aro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aro)
#### Post date: [July 3, 2002, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/find-the-most-prolific-misspelling/117182/20 "2002-07-03T14:52:32Z")
**millenium** hits over 1,420,000
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