Sticks and stones aside, some words do hurt. Just look at the reaction to Dr. Laura Schlessinger's use of the N-word and Jennifer Aniston's R-word slip.
Earlier this week, Schlessinger announced she was ending her successful radio show a week after she went on a five-minute rant in which she used the N-word 11 times.
Now Aniston is the latest celebrity to come under fire for using the word "retard," which is considered offensive, during an interview Thursday on "Live With Regis and Kelly."
While discussing dressing up as Barbra Streisand for Harper's Bazaar, Aniston let the word slip.
"You're playing dress up!" Regis Philbin told her.
"Yes, I play dress up!" she replied. "I do it for a living, like a retard!"
The reaction was immediate and harsh.
"Special Olympics is always disappointed when the R-word is used, especially by someone who is influential to society," the group's spokeswoman Kirsten Seckler told ABCNews.com. "The pervasive use of the R-word, even in an off-the-cuff self-deprecating manner, dehumanizes people with intellectual disabilities and perpetuates painful stereotypes that are a great source of suffering and negative stigma."
Aniston, who took Bill O'Reilly to task on "Good Morning America" for saying she was "destructive to our society" after she defended single motherhood, has so far stayed mum about the flap. Her rep did not respond immediately to ABCNews.com's request for comment.
Given the controversy generated by both Schlessinger and Aniston, here's a look at five words that some advocacy groups would like to see put to bed already.
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