‘Harmonica’ most commonly used word in Gloucestershire

According to Oxford University Press (OUP) the most commonly used word in Gloucestershire is ‘Harmonica’. The OUP analysed 123,436 entries for the 2016 BBC Radio 2 Chris Evans Breakfast Show’s ‘500 Words’ short story competition. For the first time in the competitions history they used specialised software, every entry was analysed by an academic and technology team from Oxford University.

The results then found the top ten most commonly used words in each county’s entries in the competition.

In Gloucestershire the top 10 words used more than any other are:

harmonica

moles

sheriff

gangsters

blitz

ballerina

flowery

tracker

pepperoni

snowmen

It is always nice to have the harmonica (otherwise known as the “mouth organ”) recognised in any way, what better way, than to be the most commonly used word.