When it comes to expletives, US citizens are the most prolifically profane. Finnish researchers found that Americans drop more f-bombs than their UK counterparts, while Australians are the most creative in their use of the ultimate four-letter word, per a study published in the journal Lingua.
The profane study, which was conducted by scientists at the University of Eastern Finland, set out to investigate the uses of the notorious expletive on social media and across different countries.
To accomplish this task, the team examined a staggering 7.8 billion words posted by 435,345 X users from the US, the UK and Australia between 2006 and 2023. They focused on the f-word because it’s the most frequently used obscenity and the most likely to ruffle feathers in “polite” company, per the study.
They found that US citizens used “f–k” the most frequently, followed by Brits, then lastly, Australians, contrary to the perception of the Aussies as being particularly latrine-lipped.
That being said, it’s not the size of the f-bomb but how you use it. Swear word-smiths from Down Under were the most creative with their deployment, using 2,160 spelling variants of the word compared to 1,969 in the US and 1,474 in the UK.
