'Whatever' slips a little, but continues reign as most annoying word POUGHKEEPSIE, N.Y., Dec. 28 (UPI) -- "Whatever" remains the most annoying word or phrase in the English language, a poll indicates. "Like" and "you know" trailed in the show and place positions, the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., reported Thursday. Almost one-third, 32 percent, of the adults surveyed selected "whatever." Another 21 percent picked "like" and 17 percent "you know." "Just sayin" was the only other phrase to break into double digits at 10 percent. Another 9 percent picked "Twitterverse" and 5 percent "gotcha." "Whatever" has now been in the top spot for four years running. But it has lost ground from last year when 38 percent found it most annoying. Older respondents, non-college graduates and people with incomes under $50,000 were more likely to be annoyed by "whatever." Respondents under 45, college graduates and those with larger incomes tended to go for "like." Marist surveyed 1,246 adults by telephone Dec. 4-6. The margin of error is 2.8 percentage points.