(October 8, 2009)--The word or phrase Americans find most annoying when used in conversations is “whatever,”

The popular slacker term of indifference was found "most annoying in conversation" by 47 percent of American adults surveyed in a Marist College poll released Wednesday.

"Whatever" easily beat out "you know."

The other annoying contenders were "anyway," "it is what it is" and "at the end of the day."

"Whatever" has staying power.

Immortalized in song by Nirvana in 1991, popularized by the Valley girls in "Clueless" later that decade, it is still commonly used, often by younger people.

Pollsters at the college in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. surveyed 938 U.S. adults by telephone.

The margin of error is 3.2 percentage points.