Michigan has banned more than 26,000 vehicle license plates

You can't be 2KINKY or 2SEXUL, 2LEWD or an 0LDFART. And you better not brag that you're FASTNH0T or admit that you HADAFEW.

These are just a handful of the 26,634 vehicle license plates as of mid-July that have made the Michigan Secretary of State's "bad word file," a list of prohibited license plates meant to make the roads a little less lewd and crude. No, PH0NSEX or J0Y0FSEX either.

The list, a combination of words, letters, numbers or both, is so long that it covers 606 pages and gets new additions almost by the day. (The number 0 sometimes is used in place of the letter O, while the letter I and the number 1 can both be used.)

The Free Press obtained the "bad word file" under a Freedom of Information Act request.

Some are abbreviations, such PITA (not the bread, but Pain In The Ass); TDTM (Talk Dirty to Me) and LMA0 (Laughing My Ass Off). Obviously, profanity is not allowed, and neither is spelling those words backward. Murder also can't be spelled backward, with more than two dozen banned versions of "redrum."

Variations of 0MG are banned too, even 0HMYGAWD!

One of the latest to hit the bad word file are references to "hawk tuah," an onomatopeoia — a word inspired by a sound. In this case, hawk tuah refers to the sound made when spitting, which gained attention recently in a viral video.

The SOS has denied more than 30 requests for this term alone, and just since June 21. One reference to the expression now on the bad word list is HWK2UA.

The bad word list has been compiled since at least 2010. Last year, the SOS issued more than 48,000 personalized plates.

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Drugs, even references to the word dime, when there's suggestion of a dime bag — the small baggie with $10 dollars worth of marijuana — are out, along with 0unce. So are crime and murder, no IKILL4U or CATKLLR, alcohol, gangs, and sex-for-hire and several versions of RU — as in RU18YET, RU2HI, RUEZ, of RUUP4IT?

U get it?

Also off limits: demeaning terms for particular groups of people, references to hate groups and negative nods to political figures like Joe Biden or Donald Trump. A few banned plates were aimed at automakers themselves: EEWFORD and NUKEGM.

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Some combinations of words or numbers are not allowed on specialty plates for universities or professional sports teams. For example, a Detroit Lions plate can't say TERRBL.

And speaking of sports, Ohio State University haters can't post their disdain for the school in Columbus on their license plates. No 0SUSUCKS or 0SUSKS allowed. This list also has its Michigan State haters too, including IH8MSU.

There are some words that make you wonder why anyone — other than a kindergartner — would want a license plate that says something like DIARHEA. It's spelled wrong, but it's on the list. Then there are all the references to farts and poop: IFARTED, UFARTED, even 0LEFART and IMAP00P.

With 1,200 new forbidden plates added every year there will surely be new additions to the bad word file.

Contact Jennifer Dixon: jbdixon@freepress.com