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From Zohran Mamdani's electoral victory to the captivating drama of the Louvre jewel theft, staying abreast of this year's headlines has left many Americans grappling with tricky pronunciations.

Both the moniker of New York City's future mayor and the renowned Parisian gallery have found themselves featured on a catalogue of 2025's most butchered words.

Language education firm Babbel, alongside closed-captioning specialists The Captioning Group, unveiled last week their compilation of terms that proved most challenging for American news presenters, political figures and public personalities throughout the year.

The list provides insight into the individuals and subjects that captured the nation's attention.

As Mamdani climbed the political ladder, the democratic socialist's surname frequently fell victim to verbal mishaps.

When he assumes office in January, the 34-year-old will make history as the city's inaugural Muslim mayor, first African-born leader and first of South Asian descent.

According to Babbel, his name - correctly articulated as zoh-RAHN mam-DAH-nee - was typically botched when speakers mixed up the "M" and "N" in his surname.

Mamdani has expressed tolerance for genuine attempts at pronunciation but takes issue with deliberate mispronunciations.

During a mayoral debate, he corrected former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's rendition of his name, stating firmly: "The name is Mamdani. M-A-M-D-A-N-I."

The theft of France's crown jewels from the Louvre in October left many people stumbling over the pronunciation of the world's most-visited museum.

Babbel reveals the correct pronunciation is LOOV-ruh, with a particularly gentle emphasis on the "ruh," which can prove tricky for English speakers.

"A lot of these words come from different languages, and so we have to adapt to a sound that we've never made before," explained Esteban Touma, a linguistic and cultural expert at Babbel.

- Acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, should be pronounced uh-SEE-tuh-MIH-nuh-fen. President Donald Trump provided comedians with abundant material when he fumbled over the word whilst urging pregnant women to steer clear of the painkiller despite a lack of evidence regarding potential links to autism.

- Alex Murdaugh, the distinguished South Carolina barrister who received a life sentence for the 2021 fatal shootings of his wife and son, is pronounced AL-ick MUR-dock. The case was later dramatised in a Hulu series this year.

- Mounjaro, pronounced mown-JAHR-OH, belongs to a new generation of diabetes and obesity treatments that have surged in popularity due to the significant weight loss experienced by patients using these injections. Several words on the U.S. list, including Louvre and Mounjaro, also made the U.K. list, compiled by Babbel in collaboration with the British Institute of Verbatim Reporters, a group for subtitling professionals.

Storm Éowyn, which wreaked havoc across Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland in January, landed that name on the UK list. According to Babbel, the correct pronunciation is ay-OH-win, articulated in a three-beat rhythm.

Throughout the year, captioners keep track of words that repeatedly prove challenging to pronounce, spell or are newly emerging. Linguists at Babbel also monitor new pronunciation hurdles they encounter.

In an unexpected pronunciation revelation this year, actor Denzel Washington informed late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel that he was named after his father and their first names are actually pronounced DEN-zul. However, he explained, this led to confusion so his mother decided to pronounce her son's name as Den-ZELLE.