201 ways to say ‘f**k’: what 1.7 billion words of online text shows about how the world swears

Australians are outdone by Americans and Brits in how often they swear and in how many users swear online. Max Pepper/CNN

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(The Conversation) - Our brains swear for good reasons: to vent, cope, boost our grit and feel closer to those around us. Swear words can act as social glue and play meaningful roles in how people communicate, connect and express themselves – both in person, and online.

In our new research published in Lingua, we analysed more than 1.7 billion words of online language across 20 English-speaking regions. We identified 597 different swear word forms – from standard words, to creative spellings like “4rseholes”, to acronyms like “wtf”. READ MORE FROM CNN