Each U.S. State’s Favorite Swear Word (and Who Swears the Most)

Regional language differences are a perennially popular topic among Americans. Southerners say “ya’ll,” while people in the Pacific Northwest favor “you guys.” Californians call soft drinks “soda,” but they’re “pop” to Minnesotans. The list goes on.

As illustrated in the map below, linguistic preferences seem to extend to swearing, too. Wordtips—a site that helps you beat various word games, from Scrabble to Wordle—analyzed tweets from across the country to determine the most common curse word in each state. It was a close race between s**t and f**k. The former came out on top in 15 states, including the majority of Southern states and several more in New England. The f-word nabbed a respectable 13 states, from the West Coast (California, Oregon, and Washington) to the Northeast (New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts).

Hell looms large over both Dakotas, plus Minnesota, Nebraska, Missouri, and a few other states. The Carolinas are partners in their affinity for the word b***h, and Alaskans love d**k. Idaho residents, meanwhile, are big fans of crap.

Wordtips also looked at how often swear words cropped up in tweets from each state. Georgia was the winner with 48 curses per 1000 tweets; Maryland and New Mexico weren’t far behind. In wholesome Minnesota, on the other hand, only 15 tweets of every 1000 featured dirty words.

If your own cursing seems a little out of control, there are plenty of ways to cut down. But before you commit to breaking the habit, you should know that profanity comes with benefits. That said, you could always swap out your own four-letter-word of choice for something a little quainter.

Check out more state-by-state takeaways from the Wordtips study here.