Tweet victory for Twitter... the most used English word



It has become many celebrities' favourite way to share their thoughts, however mundane, with the world.

But now internet phenomenon Twitter has become the most popular word in the English language, according to researchers.

The microblogging website - which allows its 20million users including Stephen Fry and Demi Moore to transmit 140 character messages across the globe instantly - beat Barack Obama into second place in a survey of the most-used phrases this year.

Twitter, which has celebrity fans such as Stephen Fry, has become the most used word in the English-speaking world



Texas-based group Global Language Monitor studied the internet and media over the past 12 months and recorded which words turned up most often.



Twitter's surge in popularity, it has grown from 150,000 British users in 2008 to 2.6million this year, helped it to the top spot ahead of Obama and H1N1 - the scientific term for swine flu.



Other words to enter common currency reflect the global economic crisis such as 'stimulus' - referring to America's $ 800billion economic aid package - and 'deficit'. Of the top 15 words, a further six are linked to the downturn such as 'outrage', 'bonus', and 'unemployed'.

GLM's Paul Payack said: 'In a year dominated by world-shaking political events, a pandemic and the aftermath of a financial tsunami, the word Twitter stands above all the others.'