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'Whatever' Is Still The Most Annoying Word In America

Jan 7, 2013, 21:50 IST

For the fourth year in a row, Americans consider "whatever" to be the most annoying word or phrase used in a conversation, according to a survey by Marist Poll.

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Almost a third of respondents — 32 percent — voted for the dismissive valley girl phrase, followed by "like" at 21 percent, "you know" at 17 percent, and "just saying" at 10 percent.

"Twitterverse" and "gotcha" also made the 2012 poll's list, annoying nine percent and five percent of poll responders respectively. Five percent admitted they didn't know which word they felt was the most annoying.

Marist polled adults ranging in age from 18 to 60+, and unsurprisingly the generations disagreed on the most irksome word. While 37 percent of the 45 or older crowd voted for "whatever," the younger generation of poll respondents thought that "like" was the most annoying phrase. Even more drastically, 37 percent of the 60 or older respondents voted for "whatever" while only 19 percent of 18 to 29 years olds agreed, choosing "like" as the worst offender at 29 percent.

View the full list of the most annoying words of 2012 below.

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  1. Whatever (32%)
  2. Like (21%)
  3. You Know (17%)
  4. Just Sayin (10%)
  5. Twitterverse (9%)
  6. Gotcha (5%)
  7. Unsure (5%)
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