Zohran Mamdani among the most mispronounced words in 2025
New York Mayor Elect, Zohran Mamdani, continues to make headlines for different reasons, this time because of the pronunciation of his name.
New York Mayor Elect, Zohran Mamdani, continues to make headlines for different reasons, this time because of the pronunciation of his name.
The language-learning company Babbel and closed-captioning company The Captioning Group on Thursday released a list of the words that news anchors, politicians and other public figures in the U.S. struggled with the most this year, giving an overview of the people and topics that had Americans talking. And Zohran Mamdani is among these words which
Americans found difficult to pronounce, according to Associated Press.
Mamdani is the first Muslim Mayor elected to the coveted post of the New York City. Ever since New York City Mayor Election campaign trail began when Mamdani rose to fame from a meager 2% support base to finally winning the NYC Mayor Elections with over 50% of vote share, most Americans garbled while pronouncing his name.
Babbel said his name — which should be pronounced zoh-RAHN mam-DAH-nee — was most commonly mispronounced when people swapped the “M” and “N” in his last name.
The report further said while Americans mispronouncing the NYC Mayor Elect’s name incorrectly was unintentional, his rival intentionally mispronounced Mamdani’s name. During one mayoral race debate, Zohran himself chided former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s pronunciation of his name, telling him that “The name is Mamdani. M-A-M-D-A-N-I.”
Other mispronounced words
The theft of France’s crown jewels from the Louvre in October had many people mispronouncing the name of the world’s most-visited museum.
Babbel said the correct pronunciation is LOOV-ruh, with a very soft pronunciation on the “ruh,” which can be a challenge for English speakers.
Other words and names on the list include Acetaminophen, the active ingredient in the Tylenol, is pronounced uh-SEE-tuh-MIH-nuh-fen, Alex Murdaugh, the prominent South Carolina attorney who was sentenced to life in prison for the 2021 fatal shootings of his wife and son, is pronounced AL-ick MUR-dock and Mounjaro, pronounced mown-JAHR-OH, is part of a wave of diabetes and obesity medications that soared in popularity because of the weight people have lost while taking the injections.
The Associated Press in its report also noted that several words in the United States also made the list of most mispronounced words in the United Kingdom (UK).
Most misspelled words 2025
Babble Thursday also released the most misspelled words of the year 2025.
According to Babble, common misspellings in the US for 2025 include definitely, separate, necessary, believe, and through.
Based on data from previous years and general language trends, some of the most frequently misspelled words across the English language are separate, believe, accommodate, definitely, and calendar.
Accommodate, originating from Latin, is often misspelled as “accomodate” or “acommodate.”
“Remember, it has two c's and two m's”, Babble said.
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