There are billions of people living on Earth, who speak more than two hundred different languages. There are languages of different natures, such as analytic or synthetic; in any case, every language is beautiful in its way. It is always pleasant to listen to a native speaker, even if we do not understand what they are saying. From a mouth of a good speaker, the words seem to flow out smoothly, like a flute melody. However, far not all the words have such melodic properties. Some of them people refuse not only to use, but also to hear. Addressing with these words can be treated as a sign of disrespect, while their use by a good-mannered person is unacceptable. These are taboo words. It is a well-known fact that taboo words constitute a group of lexical units, which are undesirable to be used in speech (Jay, 1). However, despite the prohibition of such words, they still exist, function, and, what is most striking, developing in all the languages of the world. This fact obviously points to the controversial nature of taboo words: they were invented by people, and now the same people are trying to vanish them from their languages, and visa versa, while some are trying to avoid taboo words, others are successfully using them. In any case, it should be remembered that society is the only judge, who is to decide, whether a certain word should be referred to as taboo or not. Indeed, one of the main questions about taboo words is: what criterion should be used, while defining, which words are taboo? Obviously, the words are most likely to be considered as taboo, in case they are aimed at humiliation. Admittedly, as a rule, taboo words have a great destructive power; their pronunciation can offend the addressed person, make them feel disgraced or ashamed (McGregor, 27). Taboo words are definitely a tool of an ill-mannered person. However, despite the rather negative nature of taboo words, they are still sometimes resorted to sometimes. Consequently, there have to be some situations, in which the use of taboo words should be justified, or at least explained. Judging from this point of view, we should note, that offence is not the only purpose of taboo words use. Such lexical units are often used in order to emphasize one’s speech, and make it more expressive. In addition, the use of taboo words is proved to be more often observed in people, who are in a state of emotional excitement. Interestingly, not only negative, but also the most positive emotions are sometimes expressed with the help of taboo words (McGinnies, 245). This points to the fact, that taboo words have a very important function in the society, which is serving as a means of expressiveness. Due to being useful at a certain level, taboo words still exist in many languages. What is more, they are not likely to disappear. If to think logically, it can be concluded, that taboo words serve as balancing units for the normal language. Indeed, language can only exist in oppositions, and if there are common words, there should be some taboo words. Thus, another function of these lexical units is constituting an opposition to the normed language. In fact, in order to understand the essence of taboo words, it might be useful to analyze the sphere they cover. In case of English language, most of the taboo words are connected to the sphere of sexual intercourse. In other languages, for example Russian, such character of taboo