New Study Reveals Industries With The Most Confusing Jargon
- The study analysed thousands of words, phrases and acronyms to discover which job-focused jargon confuses us the most
- IT and Telecoms ranked as the industry with the hardest to understand jargon, accounting for almost 54 million Google searches from people attempting to make sense of its often impenetrable language
- Other industries with particularly difficult to understand vocabulary include finance, legal and marketing
- The research also reveals the terms that baffle us the most with ‘CRM’ coming out on top
The Most Jargon-Heavy Industries
| ¸é²¹²Ô°ì  | Industry sector | Total search volume for jargon-related terms |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | IT and Telecoms | 53,879,460 |
| 2 | Finance | 43,590,130 |
| 3 | Legal | 43,265,580 |
| 4 | Marketing/PR | 39,937,260 |
| 5 | News | 30,695,520 |
| 6 | Agriculture | 30,569,210 |
| 7 | Healthcare | 29,051,930 |
| 8 | Leisure and retail | 28,523,780 |
| 9 | Entertainment | 26,582,390 |
| 10 | Education | 24,382,540 |
| 11 | Property | 22,652,650 |
| 12 | Manufacturing | 19,139,270 |
| 13 | Construction | 16,902,030 |
| 14 | Engineering | 14,651,080 |
| 15 | Charity | 12,232,610 |
A wide range of sectors make up the top 15, with solicitors featuring third, closely followed by the marketing industry, agriculture and healthcare. Intriguingly, sports proved the easiest sector for people to understand, despite there being a large amount of sporting slang, such as ‘turnover’, ‘hat trick’ and ‘offside’.
The Terms and Phrases We Understand The Least
The study also analysed which specific terms and phrases prove the hardest for us to understand. ‘CRM’ (customer relationship management) tops the list, attracting nearly nine million annual searches. As a term that applies to those in leisure and retail, as well as people working in the world of sales and marketing, the technology is ever present in many of our working lives but is clearly still a source of confusion when it comes to understanding the acronym.
Other top terms that send people searching for their definitions reflect the times we are currently living in, with ‘recession’ the third most searched term and ‘algorithm’ ranking 11th. A term that describes the rules used by a computer system to make a calculation, algorithms, are often mentioned during the ongoing discussions around how social media platforms can dictate what content their users will be shown within their personal feeds.
The jargon terms that are the hardest to understand
| ¸é²¹²Ô°ì  | Jargon term | Total search volume (worldwide) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | CRM | 8,457,600 |
| 2 | ADHD | 6,416,400 |
| 3 | Recession | 6,022,200 |
| 4 | Equity | 5,895,260 |
| 5 | Matter | 5,889,640 |
| 6 | API | 5,693,200 |
| 7 | CMS | 4,327,800 |
| 8 | APR | 4,313,460 |
| 9 | IP | 4,251,600 |
| 10 | ERP | 4,185,600 |
| 11 | Algorithm | 4,116,400 |
| 12 | Six Sigma | 3,683,920 |
| 13 | Internet | 3,643,640 |
| 14 | Torque | 3,638,000 |
| 15 | Interest | 3,405,690 |
To help people both within and outside of particularly jargon-heavy industries, Yell has created a handy translation guide, which is available for free on their website.
Mark Clisby, Co-CEO of Yell commented: “Jargon is everywhere in our daily lives, whether you’re buying a house, investing savings or trying to make sense of the current political landscape. Jargon clearly plays an important role in communication across almost all industries, however, overuse of it can make people disconnect from what you’re trying to say, especially if they’re not knowledgeable about the industry.
Whatever sector you work in and whether you are in a meeting, on a call or writing copy for your website or social channels, it’s important to find the simplest way of getting your point across to fellow workers, potential or existing customers. Some jargon may be unavoidable, but a good rule of thumb is to consider whether there is another word or phrase you can use which conveys the same meaning but has a higher likelihood of being understood.”
For more information on the study, and for Yell’s downloadable translation guide of some of the most difficult to understand jargon, visit:
-ENDS-
Methodology
Google Keyword Planner was used to find both the most searched for jargon terms, as well as the most jargon heavy industries. To do this, Yell created a list of terminology from 28 industries, compiling terms from online glossaries and jargon-based discussions, before using Google Keyword Planner to find the worldwide annual search volume for each, using the terms ‘what does [JARGON] mean’, ‘what is [JARGON]’ and ‘[JARGON] definition’. The volumes for each were combined to create the final ranking.
Data correct as of June 2023.
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