You might think Australians are the world's most colorful and frequent cursers.
After all, their reputation for creative profanity is legendary around the globe.
But here's who scientists just declared the most prolific and creative F-bomb droppers.
Americans take the crown in international swearing competition
Researchers from the University of Queensland and Monash University just crowned America the undisputed champion of creative cursing.
After analyzing the Global Web-Based English Corpus containing 1.9 billion words from 1.8 million web pages across the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and 17 other English-speaking regions, the research team discovered something that shocked even the researchers.
Americans use vulgar language more than any other English-speaking country on earth.¹
The massive study, published in the journal Lingua in 2025, examined web pages and blog content from 20 English-speaking regions.
Americans dropped f-bombs at a rate of one curse word for every 3,000 words they wrote online.
The United Kingdom came in second at one profane word for every 4,200 words.
Australia ranked third at one foul word for every 4,500 words.²
The research team chose to focus on the f-word because it's the most frequently used obscenity and the most likely to ruffle feathers in polite company.
What they discovered was a fascinating look at how different cultures express themselves.
Dr. Martin Schweinberger from the University of Queensland admitted he was stunned by the results.
The research team noted that Australia's relatively low frequency of profanity was surprising, given that Australians are often perceived as prolific swearers.³
But Americans didn't just win on volume.
They proved to be remarkably creative with their cursing.
Americans trail in creativity contest with inventive curse variations
While Americans topped the frequency charts in the University of Queensland study, they also proved to be linguistic innovators when it came to creative cursing.
The research found that Americans invented 1,969 different spelling variants of vulgar words, compared to Australia's impressive 2,160 variations and the UK's more modest 1,474.
Some of the inventive iterations documented in the research included "f–knicolor," "furkers," "fuqqen," "fukkeng," "fark" and the Irish-derived "feck."
Meanwhile, their UK counterparts were more likely to stick with the standard version.
The study noted that this proves we might all speak English, but we definitely don't speak the same colorful language.
The findings revealed fascinating cultural differences in cursing habits among English-speaking countries.
The researchers found that Americans frequently use variations of "a**," while British users often prefer other terms entirely.
Countries where English is the first language tend to exhibit more creativity in their vocabulary compared to those where English is a second language.
The research also showed that people drop f-bombs more on social media than blogs and other platforms, especially when conversing with acquaintances rather than close friends.
Surprisingly, swearing was exceedingly rare in circles of fewer than 15 people, no matter how well participants knew each other.
The researchers weren't just doing this for kicks.
They found out that swearing actually serves a purpose in how people talk to each other.
These ranged from expressing frustration and releasing stress to, conversely, expressing joy over positive news and adding rhetorical emphasis to statements.
As one researcher put it, people get more bang for their buck with colorful language.
Regional differences tell fascinating story
A separate analysis by WordTips examining Twitter usage patterns found even more interesting regional variations within the United States.
Their study of 1.7 million geotagged tweets revealed that Maryland topped the list as the most profane state, with 66.3 curse-filled posts per 1,000 analyzed.
South Dakota came out as the cleanest-talking state — only 21 out of every 1,000 posts had curse words.
Baltimore took the crown as America's sweariest city, with 78.2 curse-filled posts per 1,000.
Down at the other end, Lexington, Kentucky barely cursed at all — just 20.2 swear words per 1,000 posts.⁴
What's driving these differences? Some places just talk more directly than others.
You've got areas where people say exactly what they think, no filter. Then you've got places where folks still mind their manners when they're writing online.
Here's something interesting: people who learn English as a second language don't swear much online.
Makes sense when you think about it. If you're not a native speaker, you probably don't know which curse words will get you in trouble or when it's okay to use them.
That's why countries where English comes naturally show way more creativity with their profanity.
Look, this research shows us something pretty fascinating about how people actually communicate.
It's not about measuring who's got the dirtiest mouth. It's about understanding how humans use every tool in their vocabulary — including the colorful stuff — to get their point across and connect with each other.
Actually cursing folks or swearing out an oath are bad. The Bible is very clear on that if you bother to read it – And if you look up what the Hebrew word nāśā' means, you might find that taking the Lord’s name in vain isn’t about saying GD.
But using so-called curse words isn't necessarily bad in and of itself.
It’s about context – where, how, and in front of whom.
Most folks understand what’s appropriate in polite company and conversation.
If you stub your toe or are in private conversation that’s one thing, if you’re dropping vulgar offense talk in front of my wife and kids that’s something else entirely.
It happens but when it does, hopefully it’s used as a creative term of art at least.
¹ Martin Schweinberger and Kate Burridge, "Vulgarity in online discourse around the English-speaking world," Lingua, 2025.
² "When It Comes To Swearing A Lot, U.S.A. Is Number 1," 105.7 WROR, May 27, 2025.
³ "Oh, Sh*t! Which Country Swears the Most Online?" Australian Research Data Commons, May 22, 2025.
⁴ "Which Countries Swear the Most?" WordTips, December 2025.
