Quest To Crown Most Unpopular Word In English Language

Oxford Dictionaries is on a global quest to discover the least popular word in the English language. The dictionary publisher hopes that the#OneWordMap survey, launched today, will be the largest of its kind, asking English speakers all over the world to answer a range of questions relating to the their language gripes the first one being “what is your least favorite English word?”

By Thursday early afternoon, almost 12,000 words had been submitted. Participants submit their response on the website dedicated to the survey featuring an interactive map, which shows the demographics of the submissions so far by ｃountry. 

In the U.K. for example, the majority of respondents are between 25 to 44 years old 46 percent are women, 54 percent are men. “British” is already at the top of the list, followed by ”Brexit,” “no,” “moist” and “like.”

Moist is  the most disliked word in the U.S., Australia and Canada. Surprisingly, "hello" is the least popular word in Spain, while in the Netherlands "war" and"love" feature in the top five. In Ireland “racist” is top of the list a possible reaction to the recent Brexit vote.

“It’s evident that Brexit has played a part in people’s choices,”Daniel Braddock, Content Marketing Manager at Oxford University Press (OUP)tells Newsweek. “We’re always trying to find ways of getting people to engage more with words and language, so we wanted to create something interactive that people could contribute to.”

Few ｃountries in Africa have taken part in the survey so far, with just one respondent from Ghana, Nigeria, Chad and Zimbabwe respectively.

Oxford Dictionaries hopes that tens of thousands of people will contribute. Many participants have already sharing their choices on Twitter.

Compiled into a list of the least popular words by ｃountry, age, and gender, the results “ may show some surprising similarities, as well as differences” across the world, Oxford Dictionaries said in a statement issued to Newsweek.

The survey’s findings will be made accessible to the public in an online database in the coming weeks.

Source:http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/offbeat/quest-to-crown-most-unpopular-word-in-english-language/ar-BBw37Ub

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Vocabulary Words:

1. Gripe – (noun) a complaint about something

2. Demographic – (noun) data relating to the population and different groups within it

3. Interactive – (adj.) that allows information to be passed continuously and in both directions between a computer and the person who use sit

4. Respondent – (noun) a person who answers questions, especially in a survey

5. Take part (in something) – (idiom) to be involved in something

Discussion Questions:

1.  What is your least favorite English word? Why do you dislike it?

2.  What is your most favorite English word? Why do you like it?

3.  As an ESL learner, do you find English words difficult to read or understand? Why do you say so?

4.  Are there any vowels or consonants you have problems with? What are they?

5.  In what ways do you expand your English vocabulary?