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Go On, What's Your Favourite English Word?

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What is the most favourite word in the english language there has been several polls over the years remarkably (which is a nice word) it all depends, it would appear on your personal experiences. Mother is the most beautiful word in the English language, according to a survey of non-English speakers. More than 40,000 people in 102 countries were polled by the British Council to mark its 70th anniversary in 2002.

Mother, passion, smile, love and eternity were the top five choices - but father did not even make it into the list of 70 words. But some unusual choices did make the list, such as peekaboo, flabbergasted, hen night and oi.

The top ten were: 1.Mother 2. Passion 3. Smile 4. Love 5. Eternity 6. Fantastic 7. Destiny . 8. Freedom 9. Liberty 10. Tranquility others in the top 100 were 48. Peekaboo
50. Kangaroo 61. Oi 63. Hiccup 70. Hen night 85. Des res

Other words with an honourable mention were discenring discern classy and worldly, not wordly. The British Council promotes the learning of English around the world and teaches the language to more than 500,000 people each year. It will be interesting to see the poll in 2034 their 100 th anniversary.

It would appeat the most powerfu positivel words made it to the top at the time it was commentated "All of us have a mother and have a reasonable idea of who that person is, it's one piece of certainty we can have and it's also a very powerful word in a variety of cultures.

Mother's smile is fantastic "But I wonder if we would have had the same result if we had done the survey in the UK." The spokesman said the list showed the diversity of the English language: "There are words denoting concepts that people aspire to, like freedom; words that sounded fun like peekaboo and others that aren't really words at all but they convey real meaning, like oi." Amonst the least favourite words were Panties,Flesh, Chasm, Ebullient, Breast Aplomb Loin Prism Viscous Bulge Pungent Goiter Probe War terrioists and Thrust.

Maybe in 2034 in words like eco, carbon footprint and maybe even gay will make it back. Yes the word gay was hijacked by the "gay fraternity" Originally it was used to describe the happy disposition of a humanity. My old school report states Delboy has a gay desposition! Maybe the least favourite words will be big brother and pop idol, lets hope love, honour, respect and peace make it to the top 10.

It will be interesting to see what slang words make it to the free online Oxford dictionary, couple of my favourites are Cushdi: "Everything is fine".
Cushdi-pukka-sorted: "A Psycho derivative of 'cushdi'.

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DrS has been making word searches for the wordly wise for many years. His favourite words come from the free Oxford English dictionary online. One of his favourite words is abundant. Whats yours?

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