Massachusetts Ranked Among Hardest States To Spell And Say. MIT Students Were Put To The Test

Massachusetts has earned a new distinction as one of the hardest state names to spell and pronounce, according to a recent study by Preply. The state’s name is packed with challenges — 13 letters, four syllables, four occurrences of the letter “S,” and three different vowels — making it a tongue-twister for many.

To put people to the test, a quiz was held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Massachusetts Avenue, where participants tried their hand at spelling the Bay State’s name.

Andrea Ronen, a speech-language pathologist at Metrowest Medical Center, explained why the word can be so difficult to say: it requires different mouth movements and vibrations, from voiced sounds like “M” to voiceless ones like “T.”

In the rankings, Massachusetts landed in fifth place for difficulty, while Arkansas claimed the number one spot.

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