Overused words and phrases.
The Plain English Campaign has a new list of overused words and phrases. (*) Currently the most irritating is “at the end of the day,” and tied for second place are “at this moment in time” and “like” when used unnecessarily. Of the words and phrases listed by the Campaign’s press release, the following are commonly heard in America.
- 24/7
- absolutely
- address the issue
- awesome
- ballpark figure
- basically
- basis (”on a weekly basis” in place of “weekly” and so on)
- bear with me
- between a rock and a hard place
- boggles the mind
- bottom line
- crack troops
- epicentre (used incorrectly) (†)
- glass half full (or half empty)
- going forward
- I hear what you’re saying
- in terms of
- it’s not rocket science
- literally
- move the goal-posts
- ongoing
- prioritise
- pushing the envelope
- the fact of the matter is
- thinking outside the box
- to be honest/to be honest with you/to be perfectly honest
- touch base
Apparently “uh” was not considered a word. It’s a good list overall, but they fail to mention “something like that.” This monstrosity, “something like that,” is the phrase that in my estimation does more damage than any other. Not only does it malignantly grow, wastefully using more and more of our time speaking to one another, but it also fosters ambivalence in everything from serious matters to trivial details.
I’m as guilty as anyone else in overusing this list, and I resolve to do a better job of avoiding it in the future, or something like that.