The Most Annoying Word
A recent Marist Poll reveals that there is one word in the English language that annoys almost half of all Americans. We hear it a lot and, not surprisingly, most often from our kids. The word is frequently delivered with an eye roll and is the source of much parental exasperation. Think you know what it is?
Whatever.
According to the poll, those three little syllables rank at the very top of words or phrases Americans find most annoying. I am guessing many of those polled were parents of teens. “Whatever” is a word that was never intended to stand alone but somehow has evolved into a dismissive catch-all that says “I really couldn’t care less about what you are talking about and have no interest in continuing to converse with you.” Or, you know, something like that.
Which brings us to the second most annoying phrase in the English language: “you know.” This one is abused by adults and kids alike and is so pervasive that many of us are unaware that we are constantly inserting into conversational pauses. Which is probably why it is so annoying.
Coming in a distant third and fourth on the annoying list are “it is what it is” and “anyway.”
I agree that all those words and phrases are annoying, but my personal pet peeve is “awesome.” That’s a word that gets way too much play and is almost never appropriate. But somehow, it didn’t even merit a mention on the list of most annoying words or phrases. Whatever.
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Tags: annoying phrases, english, marist poll, sandy maple, teens, whatever, words
8 Comments
feefifoto commented on Oct 09 09 at 1:46 pmComments In my opinion this was an awesome post but others might not agree.
Whatever.
Andrea commented on Oct 09 09 at 2:59 pmWhen my husband and I went on a cruise for our honeymoon there was a video talking about the features of the ship, including a staircase that the architect described as “a little awesome”. I thought that that was a little awesome on its own.
g8grl commented on Oct 09 09 at 3:04 pmmy pet peeve…”and whatnot”. What the heck is a whatnot? It doesn’t even mean anything.
LogicalMama commented on Oct 09 09 at 3:29 pmCan’t stand “chillaxin”
Rica commented on Oct 09 09 at 3:59 pmMy 6yr old son uses “whatever” AND knows what it means. He gets a little bit more teen-ish every day from the stuff he picks up at school. He loves the word AWESOME, everything is awesome to him, and sometimes they are awesome and cool at the same time
Yeah, i think whatever is a clear winner.
nick commented on Oct 10 09 at 1:20 amAnother brillent saying is “you think” it gives me much joy to here my teen say this.
wait commented on Oct 10 09 at 1:33 amDon’t forget the phrase “right” usually at the end of a sentence of phrase
Momma commented on Oct 10 09 at 12:09 pmUgh….’mybad’…i hate that one
