The most frequently used word on the Internet in China is the Chinese character "顶," pronounced "ding," which means to support other people's Web site posts, the Beijing Morning Post said yesterday.

The Ministry of Education and the National Linguistics Work Committee published 20 words that netizens use the most on the Internet.

The appearance rate of "顶" is 23.02 percent, which means a netizen uses "顶" once among nearly every four words.

Experts said that half of the most popular words were used on published BBS posts, rather than in online chats.

The research said netizens prefer using symbols to words when chatting online. "As expressions and other body language are missing in online chats, the expression symbols on QQ and MSN help people to communicate better," said He Tingting, a professor from the Central China Normal University.

Experts said that Net lingo is rapidly evolving over the use of normal words. These unique Net lingo creations embody the netizens' intelligence and creativity. For instance, they use "88," which pronounces similar to "bye-bye" in Chinese, as well as "3166," which sounds like "sayonara," Japanese for "bye-bye."

Meanwhile, the research also found that the number of frequently used Chinese characters is decreasing.

To understand 90 percent of the content in Chinese publications, people have to learn only about 900 Chinese characters and 11,000 phrases.

Top 20 Net Words:

1. 顶 (support)

2. 555. It is used jokingly to represent the sound of sobbing and sadness.

3. ding (support)

4. mm/MM (young girls)

5. LZ. The person who publishes a post.

6. DD/dd (young boys)

7. 88 (bye-bye)

8. 偶 (I)

9. 马甲 (online alias)

10. ID (identification)

11. 斑主 (BBS moderator)

12. 恩 (okay)

13. 汗或寒 (sweating or cold). It is used when something strange or unacceptable has been said.

14. 晕 (faint). People use the word when they see something unordinary, confusing, funny or meaningless.

15. ps/PS (abbreviation of Photoshop)

16. 灌水 (flood-blogging). It means posting an essay online.

17. ddd (support in a strong tone)

18. bs/BS (despise)

19. 楼猪 (the person who publishes a post)

20. 滴 The word is similarly pronounced of auxiliary words "的" and "地"

(Shenzhen Daily May 24, 2006)