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'Whatever' So Totally Tops Annoying Word Poll

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Oct 7, 2009 7:43 pm US/Pacific

'Whatever' So Totally Tops Annoying Word Poll

NEW YORK (AP) ―

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CBS

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What word or phrase do Americans find most annoying when used in conversations?

It's, like, "whatever."

The popular slacker term of indifference was found "most annoying in conversation" by 47 percent of American adults surveyed in a Marist College poll released Wednesday.

"Whatever" easily beat out "you know." The other annoying contenders were "anyway," "it is what it is" and "at the end of the day."

"Whatever" is an expression with staying power. Immortalized in song by Nirvana in 1991, popularized by the Valley girls in "Clueless" later that decade, it is still commonly used, often by younger people.

Pollsters at the Poughkeepsie, N.Y. college surveyed 938 U.S. adults by telephone. The margin of error is 3.2 percentage points.

Whatever.