Rudest words in Britain

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By Lucy Sherriff • Get more from this author

Posted in Bootnotes, 12th December 2000 17:48 GMT

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It is the time of year again for the Broadcasting Standards Commission to release a list of rude words, in the order of how offensive we Brits find them.

This provides us with a terrific excuse to print lots of foul language. The Reg suspects it will use most of the words listed in the near future, bar the racist ones.

Significant movers this year: Slag is a bit more offensive, moving up two places to number 16. Bollocks, meanwhile, are less rude than two years ago and have slipped two places to number eight.

Following is a table of the offensive language, this year's ranking and its chart position two years ago. You can have fun trying to construct the most offensive, coherent sentence you can. Good luck. ®

WORD	2000	1998
Cunt	1	1
Motherfucker*	2	2
Fuck	3	3
Wanker*	4	4
Nigger*	5	11
Bastard	6	5
Prick	7	7
Bollocks*	8	6
Arsehole	9	9
Paki*	10	17
Shag	11	8
Whore	12	13
Twat	13	10
Piss off	14	12
Spastic	15	14
Slag	16	18
Shit	17	15
Dickhead*	18	19
Pissed off	19	16
Arse	20	20
Bugger	21	21
Balls	22	22
Jew	23	24
Sodding*	24	23
Jesus Christ	25	26
Crap	26	25
Bloody	27	27
God	28	28