What’s your least favourite word?
The Oxford English Dictionary have opened the discussion up to the public and are inviting internet users to submit their least favourite word in a massive worldwide online poll.
So far, there have been only 20 submissions from Ireland – rendering a top five of “Racist”, “Trump”, “Whilst”, “Nice” and “Squirt”.
Ireland’s top five doesn’t include a popular choice in other major English-speaking countries. As it stands, “Moist” is the number one most-detested word in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. This should come as no surprise to anybody.
Australians also have a strange dislike for the words “Panties” and “Inflammable.”
Interestingly, common unpopular word on mainland Europe among speakers who have English as a secondary language is “No” (Germany and Poland).
Even weirder still, “Love” is the least popular word in India.
You can check out the least popular words worldwide in real-time by looking at the OED’s One Word Map. There are currently over 10,000 submissions.
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