Despite being grown adults with jobs, responsibilities and Nutribullets, we all have certain words that we can’t say without sniggering. And more often than not, these words will be found at the lewder, more juvenile end of the English language spectrum. Remember how hilarious you found it when someone said ‘willy’ at primary school? Still find it kind of funny now? Exactly.

In a new scientific paper published in the journal Behaviour Research, psychologists set out to identify the funniest words in the English language – and their findings make us feel much better about giggling about toilet humour.

Researchers Tomas Engelthaler and Thomas Hill of the University of Warwick recruited over 800 volunteers for the study. Participants had an average age of 35, and 58% were female.

They asked them to rate words on a scale from one (not funny at all) to five (funny), and to follow their gut instinct rather than taking time to think about their answers.

The 12 funniest words in the English language, according to science