# How Offensive Is The Word "C\*\*T" In The US? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 2, 2009, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-offensive-is-the-word-c-t-in-the-us/488060 "2009-03-02T21:14:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2009, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-offensive-is-the-word-c-t-in-the-us/488060/81 "2009-03-03T19:18:57Z")
> [@lee](#): > > Twat does not rhyme with hat or cat, it does rhyme with swat, hot and fraught. This from an American who uses the same vowel in cat, hat, and path. Um, no. Swat and hot (and twat) rhyme, fraught rhymes with thought and bought. I have a female friend who thinks the single most offensive word anyone could utter is pussy. Anytime anyone speaks it, she lets them know her feelings on it, and that she much prefers ‘cunt’. In my experience, she doesn’t speak for all women. She uses cunt freely. I will admit, a woman using cunt during the dirtytalking is extremely erotic, in my opinion. Something about the taboo nature of it, to be used in a pleading “now stick it in my cunt, ooooohhhh…” manner is extremely hot. ---
**Author:** ![yojimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yojimbo/32/232_2.png) [@yojimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yojimbo)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2009, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-offensive-is-the-word-c-t-in-the-us/488060/82 "2009-03-03T19:30:06Z")
> [@Sigmagirl](#): > > I have never heard it spoken aloud.\* That’s how bad it is (or how sheltered I am). I would not say it or type it. Wow. Ireland may shock you then. I think I heard it about at least 10 times today, once by my uber-boss. Context is everything here. If in an argument I called a woman a stupid cunt it would be seriously offensive but in other contexts it’s just a strong swear word. I called a server a cunt today IIRC it was, “Cunt of a thing won’t boot no matter what I cunting try”. When somebody else fixed it they called me a silly cunt for not fixing it myself. Then we went out for a fag(smoke). ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2009, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-offensive-is-the-word-c-t-in-the-us/488060/83 "2009-03-03T19:34:50Z")
> [@lee](#): > > Twat does not rhyme with hat or cat, it does rhyme with swat, hot and fraught. This from an American who uses the same vowel in cat, hat, and path. Swat, hot and twat do not rhyme with fraught. This is from an American who knows how to talk American good. ---
**Author:** ![occlusian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/eada6e/32.png) [@occlusian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/occlusian)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2009, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-offensive-is-the-word-c-t-in-the-us/488060/84 "2009-03-03T19:52:55Z")
> [@Sigmagirl](#): > > I have never heard it spoken aloud.\* That’s how bad it is (or how sheltered I am). I would not say it or type it. > > The person I despise most in the world is a malicious, spiteful, corrupt bitch. I feel the word adequately describes her. Still I wouldn’t use it. That’s how bad it is. > > Not talking about movies, but about actually hearing a person say it. You know, I can only recall hearing it in one movie (The Silence of the Lambs) – and I remember it being extremely jarring (as I think it was intended to be). ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2009, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-offensive-is-the-word-c-t-in-the-us/488060/85 "2009-03-03T19:53:39Z")
Clarify for me: In the US, twat sounds like twot? Here they are two seperate words, the former rhyming with hat; the latter with hot (and fraught rhymes with thought and bought). ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2009, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-offensive-is-the-word-c-t-in-the-us/488060/86 "2009-03-03T20:03:01Z")
> [@Kal](#): > > Like hat. The word twot does exist, but I don’t think it has as many uses as twat (“I got twatted last night and ended up twatting some twat in the twat”) Poor Robert Browning thought a twat was something a nun put on her head: Then owls and bats, Cowls and twats, Monks and nuns, in a cloister’s moods, Adjourn to the oak-stump pantry! Robert Browning, _Pippa Passes_ ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2009, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-offensive-is-the-word-c-t-in-the-us/488060/87 "2009-03-03T20:03:05Z")
> [@corkboard](#): > > Um, no. Swat and hot (and twat) rhyme, fraught rhymes with thought and bought. You have to be careful when making definitive statements about pronunciation. For me, \*swat \*and \*twat \*rhyme but \*hot \*rhymes with _fraught_, _thought_, and _bought_. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2009, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-offensive-is-the-word-c-t-in-the-us/488060/88 "2009-03-03T20:15:26Z")
There’s considerable variation among American accents regarding how low vowels are parsed. For me it’s like this: [hæt] [kæt] [swät] [twät] [hɑt] [frɑt] [θɑt] [bɑt] I have caught-cot merger in my accent. A caught-is-not-cot accent might parse them this way. [kæt] [swɑt] [hɒt] [bɔt] ---
**Author:** ![MichaelQReilly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@MichaelQReilly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelQReilly)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2009, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-offensive-is-the-word-c-t-in-the-us/488060/89 "2009-03-03T21:02:58Z")
> [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > Between guys it’s not really offensive. Women will freak out unless they’re the type to do tricks for $2. Yeah, I agree with this. A bunch of women freak about the word, so most me don’t use it. But if you are with just men or a woman who you know doesn’t take offense to it, it’s no big deal. Some people here have implied that it’s on the level with the N word, which is an overstatement in my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2009, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-offensive-is-the-word-c-t-in-the-us/488060/90 "2009-03-03T21:04:52Z")
> [@acsenray](#): > > You have to be careful when making definitive statements about pronunciation. For me, \*swat \*and \*twat \*rhyme but \*hot \*rhymes with _fraught_, _thought_, and _bought_. I guess I should have appended “…in the World According to Corkboard.” ---
**Author:** ![emmaliminal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7bcc69/32.png) [@emmaliminal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emmaliminal)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2009, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-offensive-is-the-word-c-t-in-the-us/488060/91 "2009-03-03T21:13:39Z")
FWIW: [The Great American Cot-Caught Merger](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonological_history_of_English_low_back_vowels#Cot-caught_merger), with a handy reference map of who says what how where. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2009, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-offensive-is-the-word-c-t-in-the-us/488060/92 "2009-03-03T21:20:57Z")
In my favorite bar, they keep a list of barred people, not allowed to ever come back. Almost all of them were booted for unacceptably bad physical behavior. One man and his girlfriend, though, crossed the line when they called the cook and the lady bartender cunts. These aren’t shy, prudish women. The cook playfully calls herself the Kitchen Bitch. Around here, a man cannot call a woman a cunt and expect to ever be her friend again. Come to think of it, there is no word to call a man that’s as toxic as that. ---
**Author:** ![JackofHearts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8c91f0/32.png) [@JackofHearts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JackofHearts)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2009, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-offensive-is-the-word-c-t-in-the-us/488060/93 "2009-03-03T22:18:12Z")
I am a big fan of the word (American here)…it seems to me like its about the only word that can actually elicit a response and shock someone, like a good curse should. We are so desensitized to all the other major “swear words” that we (and by that I mean me and most people I have met) barely even notice them. That one will get a reaction though, and when used by me is used exactly for that reason. ---
**Author:** ![Lambo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lambo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lambo)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2009, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-offensive-is-the-word-c-t-in-the-us/488060/94 "2009-03-03T23:36:30Z")
> [@pkbites](#): > > …Meeting her in the clinic waiting room and saying “what did the doctor say was wrong with your cunt” usually will have a different affect. I know what I’m doing for my wife’s next checkup! ---
**Author:** ![magnusblitz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b4bc9f/32.png) [@magnusblitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magnusblitz)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2009, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-offensive-is-the-word-c-t-in-the-us/488060/95 "2009-03-04T00:48:04Z")
Heh, interesting to see this here, I just saw a brohuahua on another message board I frequent where one member called another member’s girlfriend a cunt. Drama ensured. Personally, in terms of most insulting words in America, I’d probably put the list at 1) nigger, 2) cunt and 3) faggot. Though I suppose the argument could be made for other racist terms (chink, kike, spick, etc) especially when aimed at someone of that ethinicity; but I don’t think I’ve ever heard those applied to someone not of that race (whereas “nigger” gets thrown around all the time, even commonly against non-blacks). ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2009, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-offensive-is-the-word-c-t-in-the-us/488060/96 "2009-03-04T01:37:16Z")
> [@Scissorjack](#): > > A friend of mine from Leeds announced in the teachers lounge that he’d just arranged a two week holiday in Thailand, to which I deadpanned to him “Cunt”. He just laughed, since the tendency in England/NZ/Australia is to say the _opposite_ of what you mean {unless you _really_ mean it…} as a badge of blokey camaraderie… Yeah, that can get you Brits/Kiwis/Aussies into trouble. I’ve gotten into more arguments with Brits who cry that we Americans “have no sense of humor,” because we can’t read their deadpan sarcasm, which has ZERO telltales. Here’s a hint: you need to let people in on the joke at some point—especially when deadpanning to people you barely know. You’re all not Andy Kaufman. (And come to think of it, Andy got his ass kicked regularly for this sort of thing.) Oh, and as to the OP–that word is definitely the Mother of all Bombs. I’ve NEVER heard it used in ordinary conversation–only on things like Sex & the City and Howard Stern. ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2009, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-offensive-is-the-word-c-t-in-the-us/488060/97 "2009-03-04T02:37:01Z")
I did not know the word until I was in high school. It was in a Stephen King novel I was reading. I don’t remember how I knew what it meant. Now, it is one of my favorite words, not as an epithet, but as a synonym for vulva and vagina. Back when I started college my husband took over most of housekeeping, yet he would ask me where things were even if he were the last one to use it, even if he was the only one who ever handled it. I decided that it must be that he thought I was hiding them. So, I started answering “It’s in my cunt.” I answered this no matter the dimension of the object. Eventually, I had my own theme song, “The Whole World is in My Cunt.” ---
**Author:** ![BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bcef8e/32.png) [@BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BellRungBookShut-CandleSnuffed)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2009, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-offensive-is-the-word-c-t-in-the-us/488060/98 "2009-03-04T02:42:47Z")
> [@Dave.B](#): > > Even when you completely detach the meaning, the word itself just _sounds_ vulgar. Without wanting to start a list of euphemisms for female genitalia, there isn’t one, with the possible exception of “twat”, that comes close. But again with that one, it has that same short, sharp, one syllable punch that drives the offensiveness home. Almost the same impact to my ears is cooze. Less of a punch or jab per se, but more of a slimy feel to it. Tim O’Brien used it in _The Things They Carried_, having one character call a woman a “dumb cooze.” Jumped right off the page at me. ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2009, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-offensive-is-the-word-c-t-in-the-us/488060/99 "2009-03-04T04:43:39Z")
> [@SomeBodyUK](#): > > British guy in Los Angeles here. I used to say it all the time in UK, it’s a very minor term over there, and in my experience many women aren’t offended by me using it. It’s one of my favourite swear words and I used it all the time. It’s always used to refer to men, not women. > > I never say it in the US, except in front of people who know me well, British people, or Americans I know that have lived in the UK and are OK with me using it. British guy in Atlanta and contrary to your statement, I cannot think of a worse swear word in England and so I would vehemently disagree with yur statement that it is “very minor”. Even then, though, I would agree that it is viewed as much worse in the US. I guess we Brits are more used to bad language. There are other words that are viewed more seriously here: nigger (no doubt because of past racist roots in America), damn (never even thought of that as profanity until I moved to the deep south), ass, asshole. And there are others that are less serious in America: piss (as in pissed) - it seems strange to me that network TV will bleep out ass(hole) yet allow pissed. And any TV show with British characters must include “bloody” to show that they are British. It’s a pretty mild word in Britain, but a non-swear word in the US. ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2009, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-offensive-is-the-word-c-t-in-the-us/488060/100 "2009-03-04T04:45:17Z")
> [@toadspittle](#): > > Yeah, that can get you Brits/Kiwis/Aussies into trouble. I’ve gotten into more arguments with Brits who cry that we Americans “have no sense of humor,” because we can’t read their deadpan sarcasm, which has ZERO telltales. Here’s a hint: you need to let people in on the joke at some point—especially when deadpanning to people you barely know. . Why? Brits can understand the joke without any hints, so you can jolly well learn. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-offensive-is-the-word-c-t-in-the-us/488060.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-offensive-is-the-word-c-t-in-the-us/488060.md?page=6)