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Can you spell it? Local hamlet named to top-10 list

For those not from the area, Aquebogue can be tricky to spell. (Credit: Barbaraellen Koch)
For those not from the area, Aquebogue can be tricky to spell. (Credit: Barbaraellen Koch, file)

The small hamlet of Aquebogue is starting to gain national recognition — for being one of the top 10 most difficult U.S. cities to spell.

According to King Digital Entertainment, the company that conducted the survey, 56 percent of participants couldn’t correctly spell Aquebogue. On average, 64 percent of those who participated misspelled the entirety of the top-10 list. 

The survey also showed that people living in the Northeast are better spellers than those in the Midwest, South and West when it comes to spelling cities in their own region. Overall, regions in the West were most difficult to spell, with only 30 percent of those surveyed correctly spelling Western cities.

Age doesn’t play a factor in spelling ability, the survey showed, as baby boomers (54 to 60 years old) and millennials (18 to 34 years old) equally struggled to spell the 10 cities on the list.

The results of the survey led King Digital Entertainment to create the game AlphaBetty Saga, “a word game adventure” that has the player going on a journey to discover lost words and complete the “encyclopedia of everything.” It was created in an effort “to minimize travel errors due to spelling mistakes,” a press release said.

Aquebogue was the second New York location to make the list. The other was Skaneateles, a town southwest of Syracuse, which was ranked as the fourth most difficult city to spell.

Below is the complete list of the 10 most misspelled cities:

  1. Meeteetse, WY (misspelled by 70 percent of participants)
  2. Kaumalapau, HI (misspelled by 69 percent of participants)
  3. Saguache, CO (misspelled by 68 percent of participants)
  4. Skaneateles, NY (misspelled by 67 percent of participants)
  5. Champaign, IL (misspelled by 63 percent of participants)
  6. Pflugerville, TX (misspelled by 63 percent of participants)
  7. Worcester, MA (misspelled by 62 percent of participants)
  8. Ketchikan, AK (misspelled by 61 percent of participants)
  9. Winnemucca, NV (misspelled by 60 percent of participants)
  10. Aquebogue, NY (misspelled by 56 percent of participants)

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