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This could be the most hated word in the English language

Oxford Dictionaries are searching for the world's least favourite English word, and there is a clear favourite.

Oxford Dictionaries are searching for the world's least favourite English word, and there is a clear favourite. Photo: Getty

‘Moist’ – a word apparently despised the world over – is about to be named the worst word in the English language.

The word has emerged as a clear frontrunner in a global survey conducted by Oxford Dictionaries.

English speakers across the globe have been invited to partake in the #OneWordMap initiative in its quest to find the least favourite word.

At the time of writing almost 10,000 people had participated in the global survey, with ‘moist’ so far proving to be the most despised word in the United Kingdom, Australia, United States and Canada.

In contrast, other strong voting nations like the Netherlands, Spain and India have chosen “no”, “hello” and “love” respectively.

Other words that make appearances in the list of the top five least popular words in Australia include “no”, “hate”, “panties” and “like”.

The Oxford University Press team isn’t quite sure what other words will be nominated by survey respondents, but they have a few guesses, spokesman Daniel Braddock told The Guardian.

wordsurvey“We’re really not sure what words people will choose, but our expectation is that they will be fuelled by a multitude of reasons,” he said.

“‘Cancer’, for example, has affected most people in the world, so I wouldn’t be surprised if we see that make an appearance.

“And there’s a huge amount of commentary in the political field at the moment, so there’s a chance we might see some submissions related to politics.”

This is the first time Oxford Dictionaries has attempted the task of finding the most disliked words in the English language.

“This isn’t something we’ve ever done before but we’re really pleased to finally have it in place. We’re constantly trying to find ways of getting people interested in words and language, and we’re hoping that this will contribute to people’s enthusiasm for the subject,” he said.

Oxford Dictionaries has since removed the map feature from its website “due to severe misuse”.

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