Most Mispronounced Words of 2025: Louvre, Zohran Mamdani and Other Tongue Twisters That Tripped Up Broadcaster

International

-Madhuri Adnal

Updated: Friday, December 5, 2025, 9:32 [IST]

A
new
list
from
language
experts
shows
which
words
most
often
tripped
up
U.S.
broadcasters
and
public
figures
during
the
year.

The
list,
released
on
Thursday,
came
from
language-learning
company
Babbel
and
closed-captioning
firm
The
Captioning
Group.
Their
annual
review
highlights
terms
that
television
presenters,
politicians
and
other
public
voices
in
the
U.S.
struggled
to
say,
offering
a
snapshot
of
the
people
and
stories
that
dominated
conversation.

Most
mispronounced
words
2025:
global
names
and
pronunciations

Several
entries
on
the
U.S.
list
also
appeared
on
a
separate
ranking
for
the
U.K.,
produced
by
Babbel
with
the
British
Institute
of
Verbatim
Reporters,
a
professional
body
for
subtitling
specialists.
That
overlap
underlines
how
shared
global
stories,
from
museums
to
medicines,
challenged
speakers
on
both
sides
of
the
Atlantic.

Among
those
shared
challenges
was
the
Louvre
in
Paris,
the
world’s
most-visited
museum,
which
again
caused
confusion
after
the
theft
of
France’s
crown
jewels
there
in
October.
Babbel
notes
that
English
speakers
often
stumble
over
the
correct
saying,
which
is
LOOV-ruh,
with
a
very
gentle
sound
on
“ruh.”

Storm
Éowyn,
which
struck
Ireland,
Northern
Ireland
and
Scotland
in
January,
added
another
tricky
name
to
the
U.K.
list.
Babbel
says
Éowyn
is
pronounced
ay-OH-win,
with
a
clear
three-beat
rhythm
that
many
broadcasters
reportedly
found
difficult
during
rolling
weather
coverage.

Most
mispronounced
words
2025:
politics,
medicine
and
crime

Political
change
in
New
York
City
also
generated
frequent
mispronunciations.
Zohran
Mamdani’s
election
as
the
city’s
next
mayor
meant
many
Americans
tried
to
say
the
democratic
socialist’s
name
on
air,
not
always
successfully,
as
coverage
tracked
a
rare
combination
of
personal
firsts
for
the
incoming
leader.

When
Mamdani
is
sworn
in
in
January,
the
34-year-old
will
become
New
York
City’s
first
Muslim
mayor,
first
mayor
born
in
Africa
and
first
mayor
of
South
Asian
heritage.
Babbel
recorded
that
people
most
often
erred
by
swapping
the
“M”
and
“N”
in
the
surname
Mamdani,
which
should
sound
like
zoh-RAHN
mam-DAH-nee.

Mamdani
has
publicly
said
that
effort
matters
more
than
perfection,
yet
intent
still
counts.
During
one
mayoral
debate,
Mamdani
criticised
former
New
York
Gov.
Andrew
Cuomo
for
mispronouncing
the
name
and
spelled
it
out
on
stage,
telling
the
opponent:
“The
name
is
Mamdani.
M-A-M-D-A-N-I.”

Medicine
also
featured
heavily
on
the
mispronunciation
list,
including
a
common
painkiller
ingredient
that
many
households
in
India
and
worldwide
recognise.
Acetaminophen,
found
in
the
Tylenol,
is
pronounced
uh-SEE-tuh-MIH-nuh-fen,
but
its
length
and
syllable
pattern
proved
difficult
for
some
speakers,
including
senior
political
figures.

President
Donald
Trump
struggled
with
acetaminophen
during
a
message
warning
pregnant
women
about
the
drug.
Trump
urged
them
not
to
take
the
painkiller,
even
though
studies
had
offered
only
inconclusive
evidence
about
whether
high
use
could
be
linked
to
autism,
and
the
verbal
stumble
quickly
became
material
for
comedians.

Another
medicine
that
challenged
tongues
was
Mounjaro,
part
of
a
new
wave
of
diabetes
and
obesity
injections.
Pronounced
mown-JAHR-OH,
the
drug
gained
major
attention
because
many
people
reported
losing
significant
weight
while
using
it,
leading
to
intense
demand
and
frequent
discussion
on
television
and
social
media.

Crime
and
courtroom
drama
also
fed
into
pronunciation
problems.
The
list
included
Alex
Murdaugh,
a
South
Carolina
attorney
sentenced
to
life
in
prison
for
the
2021
murders
of
a
wife
and
son.
Babbel
lists
the
correct
pronunciation
as
AL-ick
MUR-dock,
which
differs
from
how
many
viewers
first
guessed
the
surname.

Murdaugh’s
name
featured
widely
again
in
2025
because
a
dramatized
version
of
the
case
was
released
on
Hulu.
The
streaming
series
brought
renewed
focus
to
the
trial
and
ensured
that
presenters
and
viewers
had
fresh
chances
to
attempt,
and
often
misplace,
the
stress
in
the
two-part
name.

Most
mispronounced
words
2025:
how
experts
tracked
them

Babbel’s
linguistic
and
cultural
expert
Esteban
Touma
says
that
unfamiliar
sounds
lie
behind
many
of
the
stumbles,
whether
the
source
is
French
art,
Irish
storms
or
American
politics.
“A
lot
of
these
words
come
from
different
languages
and
so
we
have
to
adapt
to
a
sound
that
we’ve
never
made
before,”
said
Esteban
Touma.

Behind
the
list
is
a
quiet,
methodical
process.
Throughout
the
year,
captioners
log
terms
that
keep
reappearing
as
difficult
to
pronounce,
hard
to
spell
or
completely
new.
At
the
same
time,
Babbel
linguists
monitor
language
patterns
and
collect
fresh
pronunciation
hurdles
they
notice
in
media
and
public
speech.

The
challenges
were
not
limited
to
foreign
words.
A
familiar
Hollywood
name
also
surprised
audiences
when
its
true
origin
emerged.
Actor
Denzel
Washington
told
late-night
host
Jimmy
Kimmel
that
the
name
actually
came
from
Washington’s
father,
who
shared
that
first
name,
and
that
both
were
originally
meant
to
sound
like
DEN-zul.

Washington
explained
that
using
that
version
for
both
father
and
child
confused
people,
so
Washington’s
mother
altered
how
the
younger
name
was
said,
choosing
Den-ZELLE
instead.
That
personal
detail,
shared
on
a
popular
talk
show,
became
one
of
the
year’s
most
discussed
pronunciation
stories.

Generic
acetaminophen
capsules,
often
shown
in
file
images
from
pharmacies,
neatly
symbolise
the
problem
identified
by
Babbel
and
captioning
professionals.
Everyday
products,
political
leaders,
museums,
storms
and
actors
all
contributed
to
a
year
in
which
pronunciation
itself
became
part
of
the
wider
news
conversation.

The
2025
list
from
Babbel
and
captioning
partners
shows
that
shifting
news
topics,
from
New
York
politics
and
French
art
thefts
to
new
medicines
and
extreme
weather,
gave
English
speakers
many
pronunciation
tests,
and
suggests
that
as
global
stories
spread,
the
sounds
of
many
languages
now
travel
with
them.