One tiny four letter word has become a kind of Swiss Army knife in English. The f word can signal delight, outrage, disbelief, or pure emphasis, and it slides easily into almost any sentence as a noun, verb, or adjective. Because it is so flexible, it is also easy to track, which makes it perfect for researchers who want to understand how people really talk online. And a new analysis suggests that one country leans on it more than the rest.
A study from the University of Eastern Finland looked at how often the word appears on X, formerly Twitter, across three major English speaking countries. The United States came out on top, with the United Kingdom in second place and Australia in third. The scale was huge, covering language from 2006 to 2023 and drawing on billions of words from hundreds of thousands of users, with the results published in the journal Lingua. Researchers even noted they did not expect Australia to land last given its reputation for casual, colorful swearing.
The surprising part is that Australia still stands out, just not in the way people assume. While Australians used the word less often overall, they were the most inventive with it. The team found 2160 different spellings and variations in Australian posts, compared with 1969 in the US and 1474 in the UK. Versions like fuqqen, fark, and feck showed up often, especially in jokes and meme culture, while Americans and Brits tended to stick to the classic form.
@atanamotavali #foryou #fyp #foryoupage #persiangirl #london #iranian #swearing #unladylike #angry #womenswear #manchester ♬ original sound – Sophie Eldridge
The researchers also went beyond simple counting and tried to understand when swearing is most likely to happen. By reconstructing social networks, they found people were more inclined to swear with acquaintances than with their closest friends. Swearing was also less common in small, closed circles of fewer than 15 people, suggesting that intimacy can sometimes bring a softer tone rather than a sharper one. Lead author Mikko Laitinen described swearing as a natural part of language, and argued it deserves serious study rather than automatic pearl clutching.
Other data points line up with the same general picture. The analytics company WordTips reviewed 1.7 million geotagged tweets and found the f word was the most common American swear, appearing about 11.6 times per 1000 posts. Their 2024 map put Maryland and Georgia near the top for frequency, while New York, despite its tough talk image, landed in a relatively polite 17th place.
In the end, the takeaway is less about judging and more about style. Americans seem to go for volume, Australians go for flair, and the UK sits somewhere in between. If you have thoughts on why different cultures swear the way they do online, share them in the comments.
