Mispeled word champeon

[QuikSand]

Find a word that, in web usage, is most frequently misspelled, as a share of its actual usage.

Google the correct spelling, and count the hits. Google the one or more incorrect spellings (no ambiguity about what was intended should be allowed here), and count the hits. Calculate the % of incorrect usages.

(It appears that the preferences settings you have for Google might affect this... I'm open to suggestions on what to use here)

[stevew]

Google would have to be the champion, unless company names are excluded

[DanGarion]

Receive is 2.247 %
14,200,000 wrong
632,000,000 correct

[BrianD]

My first thought - definitely/definately

definately = 22,800,000
definitely = 181,000,000

% of total uses incorrect = 11.19%
ratio of incorrect to correct = 12.60%

[stevew]

Googol 681k
Google 885m


99% wrong

[QuikSand]

Seems to me that someone correctly spelling the name of a company, whether it's Cingular, Google, Exxon, or anythign else is no longer a misspelling. Wouldn't you agree that's a more reasonable way to interpret the spirit of this little contest?

[QuikSand]

Incidentally, I'm quite sure we did a thread like this some years ago here in FOFC, but I wasn't able to locate it with a forum search. Might have been from the dark years of lost posts, I reckon.

[Lathum]

quiksand 20,200
quicksand 2,710,000

.74%

[QuikSand]

quiksand 20,200
quicksand 2,710,000

Wow, that's more than 99% misspelled!

[DanGarion]

Porn and Pron
4.95 %

[QuikSand]

The word that made me (re-)think of this...

chaise longue 80,500
chaise lounge 73,700

...about 47.7% incorrect

[dacman]

seperate 20,900,000
separate 385,000,000

5.1% incorrect

wierd 10,000,000
weird 101,000,000

9.0% incorrect

[cuervo72]

http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?t=12687&highlight=google

[Butter]

mispell - 94,600
misspell - 785,000

10.8% of total uses incorrect

[QuikSand]

Thanks for the link, cuervo. I was searching for the word Munchhausen, and got zero hits.

[cuervo72]

No problem.

[dawgfan]

ridiculous = 39,700,000
rediculous = 2,130,000

5.1% of total uses incorrect

[gstelmack]

Seems to me that someone correctly spelling the name of a company, whether it's Cingular, Google, Exxon, or anythign else is no longer a misspelling. Wouldn't you agree that's a more reasonable way to interpret the spirit of this little contest?

So "owned" and "pwn3d" don't count?

:D

[korme]

This thread just reminds me of how dumb people are. I wish there was a way to Google search incorrect spellings of lose as loose...

[Toddzilla]

elite = 110,000,000
1337 = 18,600,000

about 16% misspelled

[dawgfan]

For Shorty...

Cincinnati = 78,900,000
Cincinatti = 1,430,000

98.2% incorrect usage

;)

[Maple Leafs]

Loser = 26.6M
Looser = 7.9M

Some of those are going to be legitimate or even ironic, but I bet most of them aren't.

[Maple Leafs]

Also, about 95% of people spell the word "leafs" wrong.

[Drake]

I'd have to go with "have" misspelled as "of" (as in, "I would of done x"). I hate that.

[PackerFanatic]

25,800,000 - canceled
52,400,000 - cancelled

67% incorrect usage.

[kcchief19]

25,800,000 - canceled
52,400,000 - cancelled

67% incorrect usage.
Most of the dictionaries I checked accepted both spellings, with canceled the preferred spelling. Only your high-end dictionaries seem to not that cancelled is chiefly British, which to me suggests it's the British who get it right and we're the morons.

[molson]

Alot: 64,500,000
"A lot": 563,000,000

10.3% incorrect

[Arles]

Two that get me:

minuscule - 5,420,000
miniscule - 3,120,000

35.6% incorrect

truly - 211,000,000
truely - 8,340,000

3.8% incorrect