2023's Most Mispronounced Words Highlight Year's Hot Topics

From SZA to 'Bharat', Babbel's Lists Reveal Linguistic Stumbles of the Year

SZA, Cillian Murphy, and the Stone of Scone were among the most mispronounced words in 2023, according to lists released by online language learning company Babbel.
The lists, compiled by The Closed Captioning Group in the U.S. and the British Institute of Verbatim Reports in the U.K., highlight the words that news anchors, politicians, and other public figures have struggled with.
Other mispronounced words include the name of biotech entrepreneur and Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, Mexico’s Popocatepetl volcano, Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano, and the late Karl Lagerfeld’s cat, Choupette.
The word 'Bharat', an ancient Sanskrit word that means India in Hindi, also made the list after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government signaled that Indians should use its other official name Bharat instead of India.
The correct pronunciation of the last name of Travis Kelce, the Kansas City Chiefs' tight end, has been a topic of discussion even in his own family, with both Kelce and his brother pronouncing their last name as KEL-see.