Perhaps this isn’t all that surprising, but a new study has found that the IT and telecommunications sector has the most confusing jargon to outsiders.
Yell.com, a UK-based online business directory, ranked industries with the most confusing jargon. It was the result of a study of more than 500 million Google searches, from which Yell has also compiled a list of the most confusing terms — along with a dictionary to help people navigate confusing terms.
From an outsider’s perspective, industry-specific jargon can seem like a verbal baton that the experts use to assert their intellectual superiority by beating the “muggles” into submission.
According to the study, technology terms that are most difficult for outsiders to understand include CRM (8.4 million searches), API (5.7 million), CMS (4.3 million) and ERP (4.3 million).
The financial and legal sectors come in second and third place as the most jargon-heavy industries, behind IT/telecoms.
| Rank | Industry sector | Total search volume for jargon-related terms (millions) |
| 1 | IT and telecoms | 53.9 |
| 2 | Finance | 43.6 |
| 3 | Legal | 43.3 |
| 4 | Marketing/PR | 39.9 |
| 5 | News | 30.7 |
| 6 | Agriculture | 30.6 |
| 7 | Health care | 29.1 |
| 8 | Leisure and retail | 28.5 |
| 9 | Entertainment | 26.6 |
| 10 | Education | 24.4 |
Some of the study’s findings are surprising, such as news in fifth place and construction in thirteenth, beating the motoring sector at fifteenth in Yell.com’s list. – © 2023 NewsCentral Media