Robert E. Wolverton Sr., a Mississippi State classics professor, occasionally asks his students to vote on the most beautiful and the ugliest words in English. In his last survey conducted in 2009, the words vomit, moist, puke, phlegm, slaughter, snot, ugly, damp, and mucus, topped the list for ugliest. What makes one word uglier than another? Wolverton says a variety factors probably influence people’s perception of a word, from the word’s language of origin to the number of syllables it contains.
The associations people make between words and their meanings probably play a role in perception as well. When people hear the word mucus, they might first think of a slimy organic mixture secreted by glands throughout the body before considering the possibly hidden beauty of the word. Also, some words just don’t roll off the tongue.
We compiled our own list of the ugliest English words from a survey we conducted via Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. Given that today does happen to be the tax filing deadline in the U.S., some readers may relish the fact that a certain three-letter word made it on this list. As for the rest of you, we hope you enjoy all of these charmingly ugly words:
Smegma
Phlegm
Pus
Pregnant
Rural
Moist
Juror
Regurgitate
Crotch
Bunion
Pulchritude
Schmear
Scab
Sticktoitiveness
Discharge
Blog
Synergy
Crepuscular
Ointment
Chunk
Curdle
Tax
Fetid
Routine
Honk
Did we miss any? If any Beyond Words readers wish to amend the list, feel free to leave a comment! If you need something to clean the ugly away, try The Most Beautiful Words in English.
More Ugly English Words for Language Lovers:
For additional lists, visit these sites:
Wordnik
The Telegraph
Six Things
Writing.com
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Original source photo provided by The National Archives and Records Administration
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HATE is an ugly word.
There seems to be confusion between phonetics and semantics here. When a word means something ugly, it doesn’t mean that it sounds ugly. As for beautiful words, how about “summer” and “dawn.”
I tend to agree towards the fact that ‘pregnant’ is a very ugly word indeed – it sounds way too harsh for what it means, unlike the spanish ‘embarazada’ which flows beautifully
Pulchritude has a rather nice and crunchy ring to it…
Pulchritude is most definitely crunchy. And scab isn’t so bad; it’s short and just right for that crusty, dime-size thing on a kid’s knee.
CUNT should definitely be on the list.
I have always struggled with the word “bowel”. Dunno why, just have. Scrotum is another shocker.
Fart is farcked
Nothing can top the name of the band Crunt for ugliness.