@Yolo : Isn’t that how all the word came to be?
People use it popularly for sometime and then its loose its root and become word of it own.

‘Wrecking ball’ – overused by politicians too.

I cringe every time I hear people describe something as “Awesome”. It has been overused. Come on people, stop it and try other words.

like – Please!

This was quite an enjoyable list and I agree with your assessment that these words need to disappear…until the next generation tries to revive them and make them relevant once more.

WHAT ABOUT THE NEW WORD OF 2012 VUNNABLE ?

Couldn’t help but notice that the title of this page includes the word “trending”

I would like to see the word “impact” or “impacted” retired back to its original ntended usage. “The area was heavily impacted…” Or “the impact will be felt for years to come” Affected or affect will do just fine.

ICONICICONICICONIC!!. I must hear this term at least 20 times a day on radio, TV, and in print. Hey, it’s a great word but it is being ‘done to death’ by rampant over use. Like too much chocolate, it is putting me off desserts altogether. I also have been hearing the word EXTREMELY extremely overused. How often have you heard a woman described as “EXTREMELY PRETTY”? -sounds glaringly Garish. A caricature of simple beauty. ‘BEAUTY’ does not require a Superlative. lt IS one already. Find a new adjective. Please!

I think it may have been in the list last year, but it’s still alive and well rearing its ugly head: fail. And the double whammy, epic fail.

Literally. People misuse this. Awkward. People overuse this. The word, like, is never used correctly in a sentence

going forward – said by politicians

I wish people wouldn’t say
YO!
and
Fri-DEE, Satur-DEE
it is
Fri-DAY, Satur-DAY!!

There are some stupid words on here especially such as YOLO haha. Just listen to how it sounds haha. And i dont think anyone says hipster anymore. And humblebrag just sounds stupid and contradictory. Its one or the other. I still think epic is cool, perhaps not as cool as it used to be though.

Saying “absolutely” when a simple “yes” will do, thank you.

I am sick to death of cutesy words like hubby, wifey, and bestie. Why must grown adults talk like toddlers? What’s so hard about saying or typing the words husband, wife, or best friend? Or even the internet shorthand words DH, DW or BFF? Now the media is using these stupid-sounding words. UGH STOP!!!!

“Meme” I think this is meant to replace “cliche” which I think works just fine.

Awesome is by far the most over-used word of the year. Please make it go away. Once it was a word that had impact, depth and emotion. Now it simply makes me turn and go the other way.

DIY

Where is “Swag”???

It’s not one word; it’s a phrase and it drives me absolutely crazy! Baby Bump! I cringe everytime I hear it.

Nope, that’s precisely what “curate” means. Tough.

YOLO is way overused and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard about the so called “fiscal cliff.”

Someone knows YOLO is one of the most overused and stupid words ever invented by man.

The word that has bugged me when overused on news broadcasts is “unprecedented.” It is acceptable when discussing something where precedence is expected, but most things newsworthy are, almost by definition, unprecedented. The level of debt in an inflationary economy is constantly without precedence. In any areas where we constantly break records, whether in sports records or auto gas mileage or Congressional stupidity, yield unprecedented results. So what?

I think “Star” as in “Pop Star” should be removed. I find it kind of strange.

“mad” (as in “mad ugly” or “mad hard”)
It made the user look stupid

xD YOLO. When I hear someone say that I say YODO. You Only Die Once xD

I am tired of everyone using the word “amazing” to describe their feelings for a person, place, or thing. It is so generic because the word is used by way too many people and way too often. For example, this sandwich is amazing. We had such an amazing time at the party. The weather is amazing. Oh my God, you are sooooooo amazing!!!!!!! It makes me want to vomit. Haha.

Shorthand is useful in texts, but should be eliminated in normal conversation where people should have enough energy to enunciate.

“Debunking.” Spending an hour on google looking for articles that confirm your bias is not the same as disproving something.

The word amazing is overused by way too many people. It makes me want to vomit.

Oops. Two postings by accident. This is because the site said my first one did not go through. Some how, I am sure there is a person out there who would describe the error as amazing.

I prefer YOLF(you only live forever(eternally in Christ)) over YOLO, which is very annoying and definitely overused.

Channeling. I’m so tired of articles referring to a star as channeling someone who’s dead. Buzzy is also an annoying non-word – eg. “This buzzy new restaurant…”

“Confuzzled”———— ICK! SO overused by middle schoolers. It’s SUPPOSED to be a mix of “confused” and…….. well, SOMETHING else!

YOLO is the best word of 2013, not the worst.

I mean 2012.

YOLO SWAG 420

@Erik: It is strange, having a person be a “star,” but it’s not an overused word. Maybe “star” isn’t incorrectly used either, since it also means a person of great talent. I’d like to learn how that came to be, though.

I have a few words and opinions to voice out, and here they are. I like to think of YOLO as You Only Live Once, so you’d better have it last, rather bungee jumping off of the Grand Canyon without a rope. I still don’t use the term, though. Swag is a word that needs to be wiped off the face of the planet. Swagger is fine, but no one uses it. The TLDR is just plain stupid. Who would admit to being lazy enough to not want to read Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights? Especially when they are teenagers who, if they tried and studied, could easily read books like that? Well, I think I’m boring whoever might be reading this, so I guess I’ll stop. Thanks for reading!

How about “swag”?

One phrase that makes me cring every time I hear it is “you guys”.
What ever happened to simply using “you” when addressing another person. I’m not a guy and I detest being so designated.

The words I hate, “Skin in the Game”.

Celebrity is a word that has been so diluted that it should be removed from the dictionary.

And when did “gift” stop being a noun? You give a gift. You don’t gift. You haven’t gone gifting.

I think ‘Justin Bieber’ needs to be removed!!! He’s been terrorizing the English language too long. It’s time for him to go!

To all you grammar nazis and conservatives- languages change! They have been changing for, what, over 50.000 years and they will continue to do so. New vocabulary is testament to the ever expanding world view of the human race, and should consequently be embraced as such.

“… reach across the aisle” stirs something dangerous in me, beyond my usual disgust at any vogue word or phrase. I tried to open a vein when I saw in an article comment: “he reaches across the isle.” That is so wrong. But I was laughing too hard to hold the razor blade. Which leads me to ask as I’ve been asking for a long time: if you misspell a word in such a way, how can you possibly understand what the word or phrase means?

Anyways. How did that creep into such common usage??

Gentle friends, language is art. In a free society there will be many genres, each popular with a core group of ardent fans, and appreciated by scores of others. Those that are so venomous in their hatred of a particular genre feel so because they fear the loss of their own. Not to worry, Elvis cover shows are still making lots of money and the Justin Biebers of the world capture the limelite for as long as their fans’ attention spans last. No need to hate- we can all get along. As a reflection of a diverse and changing culture, this list of overused words absolutely delights me. Art is alive.

How about the word that immediately and irreversibly marks its speaker as a linguistic moron forever, the moment they say it? A word that is in bloody CONSTANT use on the CBC and just about every OTHER broadcast media! A word that every speaker of it has never even THOUGHT to analyze, yet continues to remain in constant, cringe-inducing usage.

That word is “reiterate”. ….used instead of the simpler, clearer “repeat”.

Everyone who uses it speaks it like they think it is making them sound more intelligent; yet, a moment’s careful thought proves the opposite.
The word “iterate” ALREADY MEANS “to repeat”. Thus, to “re-iterate” means to “re – repeat”, which is as stupid as a double negative (“I ain’t not going”) or people who say “irregardless”. (“Regardless” already means “without regard”, so the “ir” is not necessary, unlike the word “irrespective”, which NEEDS the “ir” prefix to indicate “without respect”. So, if you’ve been wondering why people snicker every time you say “irregardless”, now you know. But I digress.)

So please, please… for the love of English and a desire to comfort those helpless audiences forced to endure the idiotic and inane repetition of “reiterate” being foisted upon them by thick-headed broadcasters, call your local radio and TV stations and educate their managers to the fact that they can simultaneously lower the “Fog Index” and make things clearer by forbidding “reiterate” henceforth and forever more, and replace it immediately by the correct and utterly appropriate “repeat”.
Further, having HALF the syllables, “repeat” takes less time to pronounce, and thus, after several thousand usages will have saved many minutes of precious airtime towards other more worthy pursuits. Pure broadcast economics, folks!

Sometimes, “bubble” actually fits. At the school I just graduated from, it’s called the Bubble because it’s a conservative Christian school in one of the drug capitals of the states, and so it’s pretty shattering when people get out of the Bubble and realize that it’s actually dangerous to walk around at night off (and sometimes ON) campus, and that a lot of people in town don’t really appreciate the school being there.

Otherwise, I’d have to say that it is overused when it’s not indicating a sense of naivete.

Totally, seriously, OMG, like (I, like, totally just…)

What’s in a name?

“Legend” or “legendary”, when it’s used to mean “awesome”.

When incorrect use of a word is widespread like this, does the actual meaning of the word change eventually?

The epically epic epicosity of this epic list cannot be under-epicated.

Amazing–that word has lost all meaning to me.

The CONVERSATION. Suddenly, everything is a conversation. Guess what? Top level politicians never have a conversation with me, because I don’t know them. I don’t have conversations about generalized topics with the entire population for the same reason.. It’s so overused it makes me crazy.

YOLO must die. I have seen YOLO tattoos. Humanity is doomed.

That is all.

What about “legit”? The abbreviation of a term intended to describe something as cool, or not fake, has ironically developed into a shallow term because of its overuse. One can fight the current by saying “legitimate” but even just trying to use the term sucks any depth out of what you’re trying to say.

The problem with all these words is that a large community uses them only in mockery. Which, of course, backfires, only contributing to the pool of useless blabber.

At my high school YOLO has become one of the most annoying phrases ever. Why did you play chicken on the freeway? YOLO! Why did you jump off the second story railing? YOLO! They all say with a shrug and a grin. Absolutely idiotic.

i would LOVE to leave the word “swag” behind please. pleeeeease.

it has always sounded like a hybrid of derogatory words to me. like you should be insulted if someone looks at you and says “swag.” it also registers as an abbreviation of hygenic practices involving a vagina. “make sure you swag before your date.”

Coming from the word “swagger”, it also seems to exalt a certain kind of hyper-testosteroned masculinity as an ideal. so yeah. no more swaggery please.

I would like “went viral” and similar usages of “viral” as a verb to go away.

how about “word”? or “swerve” haha

Ditto what Melissa said!

hashtag, YOLO, hipster, or rachet.

“Legit”, “swag”, “beast”, “boss”, “smexy”, etc.

Because no, you are NOT “a smexy legit boss/beast!!!! SWAGG!!!!!!!~<3"

Just stop. For the sake of humanity.

The word “bestie” gets on my nerves…

I believe “cool” is overused, definitely. “That’s cool. That’s cool. That’s cool.”
Why not more interesting words? For instance, why not words that we all know, but don’t use? “That’s smashing!” “Wow, terrific!” “That is totally groovy!” “Isn’t it wonderful?” “This is sensational!” Hundreds of hunky-dory words are forgotten and replaced with overused phrases.

I believe “cool” is overused, definitely. “That’s cool. That’s cool. That’s cool.”
Why not more interesting words? For instance, why not words that we all know, but don’t use? “That’s smashing!” “Wow, terrific!” “That is totally groovy!” “Isn’t it wonderful?” “This is sensational!” Hundreds of hunky-dory words are forgotten and replaced with overused phrases! I hope this helps.

Naw. you guys sound like yo-yos on this one.

Okay, text slang y’all. Anyone that takes a perfectly structured particle of the English lexicon and chunks a whole section of it deserves a thwonk on the side of the head in my opinion. (*Cue whiny voice*) But seriously people?? Keep it up and no one will speak full words…we’ll probably retro-evolve (making up words here) to baby gibberish…
-Totes
-Awk
-Totes awk
-Supes
-Deets
-Sesh (short for session)
-fro yo (not the brand. the dessert)
-YOLO me and you will get punched.

oh and bubble in the sense that ‘everyone lives in their own bubbles’

other expressions I can grudgingly live with. Understand, people, language evolves. Like Derrida believes, there’s nothing inherent about language. it’s all based on differences and what it isn’t (a word means something because it doesn’t mean something else) and therefore definitions will change. Tis the nature of language. Accept it.
(Except there is no excuse for butchering the fat out of words like it’s beef!)

The english language changes throughout time. Its going to be forever changing. Remember the words that you hate will be liked and used by others while they will just hate on the words you like.

However after saying that there are many words that i dont like i mean YOLO is ridiculous. There is a proper word for it out there that sounds much more impressive. But what is all this hating on ‘Awesome’ it is a good discriptive word which people use often but we all also use loads of words in the english language often so whats the difference with this word?

Among phrases I find annoying: “No problem”…as a “polite” response to “Thank you”….

“Thank you”

“No problem”

OrientATED -gaa! I’ve heard this time and again. Even used by people in the media. The word is ORIENTED, as in “I went to a Orientation session to get Oriented” not Orientated. When I was in Bangok I became Disoriented, so I looked at a map and found my way to Patpong and got Re-oriented. (or should that be Orientaled?) with a capital O.

After months and months of language desecration not too long ago, my grown children finally stopped using the shamelessly inappropriate tag line, “That’s what she said”. It was good the first time, but it just became predictable and trite.

@Melissa,
What an ‘epic’ statement!! You have got to be an ‘amazing’ person.
You demonstrate an extremely wise and benevolent disposition.
Have you thought about running for office?
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

“Literally”, “legit”, and anything that starts with “#”

what about the phrase ‘ya mum’
personally i use it a lot but anyway…..

Now, with Madam Hillary Clinton gone, perhaps we could, once and for all,
put this whole issue of comprehensiveness to its comprehensive rest,
(comprehensively, I hope…)
Promise, it WILL be hillarious!
Comprehensively yours Mikey

WOOFY! High Level Crap.

“Nother”, as in “It’s a whole nother world out there.” Just use “other”.

Why doesn’t anyone call a person anymore, it’s “reach out.”
Why don’t we incentivize now; instead we “incent.”
Why do we misuse “As Such” in place of “Therefore”. His dad hurt his feelings. As such, he hurt his little sister???

Slippery slope.

“Iterate” does not mean “to repeat.” It means “to speak” or “to say.”
Re-iterate, therefore, means to speak again or to say again. Try a dictionary. It’s most helpful.
To re-iterate that advice, look before you leap.
YOLO.

Swag is a word that needs to be beaten and murdered.

And please, if you’ve ever heard yourself say

“That bytch be triflin’” or “You wilin’” or “That shyt’s OD”

Know that you sound ridiculous and I lose all respect for you.

Although I adore the sound of “That’s one hella-ratchet-ass ho”

Oh, and i’ve noticed that people say stuff like

PresentATE
OrientATE
and ConversATE

though alternATE, seperATE, and appreciATE may be actual words, the proper way to say it is present, orient, and converse.

We should present our project, but we should also alternate speaking roles.
You should appreciate the fact that you’re about to be be oriented around this amazing museum.
They tried to converse, but the librarian told them to seperate and be quiet.

At the end of the day, the most overused phrase of the last year,
AT THE END OF THE DAY wins for worst!

@Lucy Heartfilia, I’m in middle school, and I have NEVER heard that word. EVER. I’m just saying…

@The Reader, please don’t assume all teens are like that. My freinds and I are all avid readers(more than most, but still evryone at my school reads)

He “literally” weighed a 1000 lbs

outside the box ……enuf said!

outside the box…………enuf said

You know, Gangnam Style has been pretty annoying lately.

“Game changer”. UGH! If I hear this expression one more time I’m gonna throw up.

YOLO is definitely the worst one I can think of. (Sorry, Grammar Nazis, for ending my sentence with a preposition.) I don’t understand the way it is used. Why would someone use the explanation “you only live one” to explain why he/she has done something completely stupid or totally reckless? Why? Why? Why? If you only live once, don’t take life for granted. Be smart. I completely agree with Sandra – don’t play chicken, don’t jump off the roof. Respect yourself… because YOLO.

Armaggedan. But now that 12/21/2012 is in the past, how about “taxmaggedan” aka 1/1/2013 if we fall off the (other bad word) fiscal cliff.

Well I will have to disagree with the majority of you, sadly. Don’t be mad at me, but languages change. Text language is okay to use, and it has been used for a long time. I mean, we say laser, not a beam of radiated light. We say puppies, not baby dogs less than 6 months old. We say books, not multiple pages glued together for reading. I think text is just fine, and I understand people may misuse it, but some of them have meanings just to shorten a conversation so people don’t waste a lot of time and energy trying to explain something simple.
Not everyone has to be the same, people. Not everybody knows grammar like you do. We may know how to speak properly and know when to capitalize and when to put quotations, but keep in mind, some people aren’t fluent in English, others just don’t know. Please don’t be mad at me.

gangnam style! that song is getting really annoying! I hate it!

no sign of “totes.”

Gangnam style.

No. 1 word you didn’t mention: “swag.”

Other than that, “curate” is not being misused at all in the context of webpages. I don’t even understand how this ended up here. You just don’t like words that have alternate contexts that involve the internet, or what?

The rest I suppose can fall out of use for all I care. Although if you include “epic” you should include “awesome,” and “hipster” won’t fall out of use until the subculture falls out of fashion. It doesn’t look to be heading that way soon, by the way.

As an aging 80’s chick, I am compelled to defend my continuing use of the word “awesome.” Like, I just can’t stop, you know what I mean? Besides, “awesome” is SO more radical than “epic,” IMO. LOL!

I know this is a phrase, but when I was working in a bank, We were required to say it. “I am going to ‘reach out’ to so and so and discuss this situation with him. Every time I said that I felt like a Hallmark Card. “reach out and touch some one.” or was that an add for the phone company? What ever, if you said your were going to call so and so to talk to them about a situation, you were immediately corrected. I have never seen any company so hell bent on using a business catch phase, as ‘reaching out’.

YOLO, Swag, Bro or anything that you hear on Jersey Shore.

I echo the banshee wails of my 5th grade English teacher every time I hear “Exact same” or “same exact ” like, whateverrrrr…… One adjective cannot modify another. Adverbs modify adjectives: ‘ExactLY the same”. Not to mention that it is redundant. If it is the same, it is already the same. We already have the word “identical”, but perhaps that is a bit too abstruse.

Secondly, “Amazing” needs to go. Everything is amazing. It is overused to the point that it has become meaningless. A few things truly are amazing, but their impact is lost in the sea of chaff by the trivializing of what used to be a contributing word. I envision a bumper sticker emblazoned “Easily Amazed”, except that so many people would need top have them that they would become like the yellow smiley faces.

SWERVE! LEGIT! SWAG! haha

AMAZING NEVER EVER EVER WANT TO HEAR IT SPOKEN AGAIN

Way too much is used way too much.

‘Of’ instead of ‘have’, e.g. ‘I could of done it’ in place of ‘I could have done it’.

The word “training” has no plural form. My first encounter with this usage was through a literacy organization.

This post certainly unleashed an unexpected level of linguistic condescension. Too bad. The slang and idioms of a language change naturally over time, and whether one finds them annoying or not, all words have value in their ability to communicate any idea, however “uncultured”. I know that this is just supposed to be a funny list, Hot Word, but it really brought out a lot of unnecessarily harsh negative feelings from a lot of people. I have a hunch that it’s related to the designation of the list as being of words that are “the worst”, rather than simply “overused” or “ambiguously defined”.

Do you know what would be cooler? A look into why some words become overused in the first place. When a word becomes associated with a lifestyle (e.g. YOLO) that itself is “trending”, the word’s usage will obviously increase. But for some other slang terms (e.g. bubble, fail, viral), what factors have contributed to their popularity? And for exaggerations or ambiguous terms used more and more in daily conversation (e.g. epic, curate, trending, impact), why are people opting to use them? To sound more cultured? Or more stylish? Perhaps, for some, more intelligent? That’s the discussion I’d like to see, not this “what words do I hate?” nonsense.

Yolo has to be by far the most degenerate word ever contrived.

Lets see if we can eliminate the ” LOL” -laughing out loud from our email, text messages and otherwise electronic lexicon. Why? Because it almost never applies to things that are funny or amusingly laughable.
Then, of course, there’s “OMG” that must be abolished from every preemptively excitable moment and almost never rises to that type of occasion.

Knock-knock.
Who’s there?
“Armageddon”
“Armageddon” -who?
“Armageddon tired of all these new, silly words.

YOLO makes me want to pluck my eyeballs out with my bare hands. It’s truly painful to hear. And Zac Efron has a tattoo of it so that just makes it about 1,000x worse. I hate Twitter with a passion so all Twitterspeak that is making it into normal conversation is bad news bears. And to everyone who’s commenting on here about how we’re all Grammar Nazis and conservatives…give me a break. YES, languages change and evolve and will do so until the end of time (hopefully). But it’s important to have people who can call out when the changes are really freakin’ STUPID. You’re welcome.

I fear there is no hope for humanity…. but YOLO!

OH! And can we stop with the “cray cray?” Please!? It’s not “cray cray”…NOTHING is “cray cray!!”

Humpday, is one of those words that makes me cringe to no end. Why not say Wednesday?

Dear YOLO

You live everyday that you are alive, and
most people live more than 1 day. Most
people only die once.
Every time someone says YOLO, I die a
little inside.

-Your Doom

ZOMBIE & Apocalypse. How did those not make it on the list?

Addicting.

eg: This video game is so addicting.

The proper word you are looking for is addictive, get it right.

I know this didn’t magically appear in 2012 but it’s about time this was corrected.

@ doc:
I looked it up. According to World English Dictionary…

iterate (ˈɪtəˌreɪt) — vb
( tr ) to say or do again; repeat
“to do again, repeat,” back-formation from iteration
from L. iterationem (nom. iteratio) “repetition,” noun of action from iterare “do again, repeat,” from iterum “again.”
Synonyms include ingeminate, reiterate, repeat, restate, retell

@ W.J.R Halyn:
Iterate and reiterate basically mean the same thing. Using one or the other is not wrong.
I do agree with you about the non-word “irregardless”. There’s no such word. The correct term is “regardless”

My own personal peeve is the mis-use of the word “like”.
“So we like went to the store and like saw a bunch of like really cool like clothes and like tried them on but like we really didn’t like… like them, so like we found a like cafe place and went in for like sodas and stuff, and like…” You get my drift.

I like YOLO. Well it’s okay. And I think epic is…epic I also like the word amazing, mostly because I usually say awesome, but I love that word too.

swag is an extremely stupid word, on the other hand. Who freaking created it???

The most over used word for me is “cool”! The only time I ever use it, is for temperature. That definately should go.

The only time I don’t mind the use of “YOLO” is when it is being used in its correct context. Considering the fact that yolo is a Spanish word (pulled from the infinitive Yolar, which means “to only live once”), I can understand when Spanish speaking or “Spanglish” speaking peoples use yolo or any of its conjugated forms (which consist of yolo, yolas, yola, yolan, yolais, yolamos).

Other than that, I find it quite annoying; especially when people use it to justify their dumb actions.

That’s true K.K; as long as they don’t say ‘cool’ to mean OK.

Carissa, you may well be avid readers, but your spelling leaves a little to be desired. If you choose to make a comment make sure you can spell it correctly or it loses all validity.

How about “legit”?

Over used phrases such as
“seriously”- so when they dont say it are they not being serious
“to be honest”- so for the rest of the discussion are they being dishonest?!?!
“does that make sense?” mentioned after nearly every sentence. As the listener I will let you know if I don’t understand something. A condescending phrase in my opinion.
Last but not least “specificity”- who says that uuuugggghhhh!!!
Have they not heard of specification!

Cheers!!!!!!

YOLO, Gangnam style, and Swag (it didnt start in 2012 but it still exists)

The acronym YOLO is so annoying. Its like cus words to my ears, and every time someone uses it i feel like im being strangled by something. YOLO needs to die.

Gangnam style is a super annoying phrase and song now. My school plays it every day and people keep saying it. I even heard a girl say that we should be thankful for Gangnam Style. I understand if you like the song and all because everyone has their own sense of music but some of you are taking it way too far.

SWAG is on my all time hate list. How come it seems to live on forever? Secretly We Are Gay, come on people straighten up a bit and throw SWAG out of your life. You know what it actually stands for now and yet you still use it. “Oh, look at my comb.” then his friend says “Swag bro Swag.” No. An action call s
saggin also tags with SWAG and its very stupid. Pull your pants up.

I prefer to make up my own words. instead of epic, i use delicious. btw, you missed swag and like a ‘boss’.

and literally…

This is sooooo cool!! I like it!!

iconic

YUCCCC!!

“ing” words pronounced “een” like annoyeen. So annoyeen!!!!!

Someone, please define “breaking news!”
Right now, I suspect breaking news is a regular news story a
news station would be covering, if it really covered the news.

I hear people still saying, “totally,” and that’s a bit annoying. A phrase that I find over-used is, “at this point,” or “at some point.” Also, someone already mentioned the most over used phrase is, “at the end of the day.” I’ve spoke to people who use it maybe twenty times throughout a whole conversation, & I find myself counting the times they’re using this phrase instead of listening to what they’re actually trying to tell me. However, it also bothers me when I’m talking to someone & they’re trying to sound so intelligent, & come up w/all these big words, that they kind of get stuck on just syllables sounding like, they’re pronouncing a “long a”, as in late, or a “short a”, as in cat….so while their brain is grasping for the next best possible choice for an intellectual word to impress, one hears, a..a….um…

OMG. Please never again to be used. I AM LIKE SO NOT AMAZED. Now, that is another good one. Why not the old fashion BOLLOCKS TO THIS!k.

[...] Writers and word lovers will enjoy this. Please take epic notes.  Here [...]

Not sure if anyone else mentioned this….the full comment list was TLDR (fully – sorry, couldn’t help myself), but the term “Hipster” that you mentioned I believe came back into vogue in the mid ’90s when Elaine Bennis on Seinfeld called Kramer a “Hipster Doofus” which was actually very funny and very appropriate.

The term that I’m tired of is to “reach out” as in when some salesmen that I never wanted to talk with and leaves a message that says, “I will try to reach out to you next week.” Don’t bother.

I desperately wish people would stop calling me “dude.” It’s time to make it a capital offense. And commentators using the phrase “beg the question” should be pilloried. It has nothing to do with asking the obvious question. Very simply, it is basing your argument on an unproven assumption. Finally (for here and now, at least) is the use of “disinterest” when the user means “lack of interest.” And I don’t care what your Funk & Wagnalls says!

Business jargon:

Going forward (As we progress)
At the end of the day (When we finish)
Own/Take ownership (Be responsible for)
Circle back (Revisit)
Table (Not discuss at this time)
Reach out (Call)
On board with (Agree with/to)

I know there are others that make my teeth hurt, but these came off the top of my head.

“I’m good”

rather thank no, thank you. Dreadfully overused.

my linguistic peeve is “at this point in time”. seems to be redundant. if i’m incorrect, let me know so i can stop agonizing every time i hear a “news
anchor” use it repeatedly.

What about the constant use of the word SURREAL …

Entertainers, celebrities, athletes seem to use this word when asked about their reaction to any victory, award or event.

Using “disrespect” as a verb instead of a noun……..please stop!

(The) Last I heard, preventative is still not word; it’s preventive. And, how about “Where are you at?” I mean SERIOUSLY? Puh LEESE! At work I see laminated signs telling us (THAT) certain products or items need RAN or need to be RAN. You seen that one caming around the bend, or is it binned? (Lol!)

It would also be nice if the phrase about how we are “impacted,” not too bee confused with” constipated” could “go missing!” 2 b a gd txtr u r BKS R LIKE RLY LNG TXT MSGS!

Preventative is not a word–it’s preventive. Seriously! Puh LEESE! Where are you at?

At the end of the day, “at the end of the day” must end.

Pop.

As in, “use a colour that really pops”, or “this shade of green will make your eyes pop”. Perhaps this terminology is a fashion/beauty industry trend, but it is so overused that I cringe every time I read it.

TLDR

[...] adore reading year end lists. Today I was reading The Worst Words of 2012 and I know tomorrow I will stumble across some other fascinating summary that summarizes what we [...]

Teenagers should be encouraged to be more cerebral in the use of english words. It is annoying when you find words like nau for now, kk for okay

This comment is for the person who called people grammar nazis and conservatives (N), and for the person who said that all words are art (Melissa). I agree that language is fluid, but I think what people like me worry about is that words are used as a substitute for actual thought. I’m not worried about some teenager using the words “epic”, or “totally”. That’s just immaturity. I’m concerned, though, about society as a whole becoming immature. It’s evident in our immature music (three or four notes repeating themselves in most pop music), our television (Honey Boo Boo, Jersey Shore), and our politics (use of the words “honesty”, “integrity”, and “values”). Words are just a mirror of that immaturity.

By the way, what is a “lovely lady lump”? Heard it in a song, and was wondering to what body part they were referring. Just sayin’ (sarcasm).

[...] other day, I noticed a link to a blog post on the word of the day pop-up, so I followed it because the title intrigued me. It was an opinion [...]

Sustainable. Which is most often referring to describe something .. “Unsustainable”.

Obviously–In my opinion it is the most over used (and incorrectly used) word. I hate when someone is telling a story and they say “obviously…blah, blah, blah”. If what happened was obvious why are you wasting my time telling me about it, and if I didn’t witness what happened how is anything about the story obvious to me?

Is everyone and everything “iconic”? …or “a-me-zing”?

“Trending” is a tab under “trends” in the Dictionary.com iPhone app…

Moving forward or going forward, as used by politicians and Michelle’s comment about “does that make sense”, also “do you know what I mean?” Gggrrr!!!! Yes, I do know what you mean,as Michelle says, if I didn’t I would say so. One of my favourite descriptive words though is “Tosser”, says it all especially when someone says “does that make sense?”

Here’s a vote for “job-killing”. Apparently that’s the scariest phrase out there when you use it as a prefix for any other word, applicable or not.

I agree that our language is constantly changing, but that doesn’t mean we are able to accept the changes immediately. Sometimes, certain words grate on the nerves.

That being said, some of the words that I think are overused are “viral,” “sweet,” and “cohort.” “Cohort” seems to be popular with management along with the annoying phrases, “Hit the ground running” and “outside the box.” How about a list of annoying business words and phrases?

Maybe we should start using YOLT, named after the 1967 James Bond film, You Only Live Twice.

Finally, I thought name mashups were long gone, but on the Parenthood Facebook page, they used the name Ryber to describe Ryan and Amber’s relationship. Fortunately, many fans blasted them for that so hopefully, that won’t happen again.

Optical Conclusion…. Oh yeah it looks like chicken, it tastes like chicken…. But believe me, it aint chicken!!!!

How about “It is what it is…”? Can’t watch news, TV shows, or have a conversation without that little over-used “gem” popping up. Oh well. I guess it is what it is.

“This phrase rose to prominence when Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the United States Federal Reserve, in a speech in February.”

Great grammar.

I think language itself is de-volving. The use of slang has always been a departure from the normal language of the time. We used, “cool” when it was. We use “bitchin” even now. A lot of these words or phrases have a self-limiting shelf-life..and will all be subject to natural selection. Don’t think there is really anything you should, or can do about it. It is all just expression..if not communication.

Peace Out

I’m still saying “wassup” and “tight”!

But the word COOL will never go out of style!

PLEASE stop saying awesome, they are even using it in commercials now. I want to throw up every time I hear it. And while we’re at it, can we stop with the amazing and incredible too?

The most overused and overworked words are “good, nice, got”.
Get rid of them!!!

Can someone more literate than I explain when “loan” went from being a noun to a verb? What’s wrong with “lend”?

But my favorite officious phrase, used by those trying to sound authortiative
but instead sounding pompous, is “due to”. How about “because”, which is simpler and actually more correct usage anyway!

An over-used oldie is “at this point in time.” I always thought that is what a moment is.

Good article. Words that are the equivalent to Ugg boots.

So many are complaining about Yolo, and you know when I first heard it? 5 mins ago when I started reading this article. Seriously , no one says that. I’ve never even heard of it

“Hero” is has certainly lost its value with overuse. I was in the military in the ’70s. Believe me, not everyone there was a hero.

How did the word horrific become popular with newscasters, commonly substituted for horrible? To me ot is an attempt to soften the emotional impact of serious tragedy. It might be a sign of increasing depth of numbing type of post traumatic stress disorder in our culture.

Kids use the word LIKE a lot. Too much if you ask me. Ask a kid to speak without using the word like and they cannot do it.

Not much to be done about it, but I’m tired of reading and hearing the words ‘Euro’ and ‘Eurozone’.

Davidallen makes a great point. His choice of devolution versus evolution is interesting. Darwin called man’s “progress” evolution, but in many ways we have devolved. One person’s evolution is another’s devolution. And he is right in stating that one shouldn’t get too bent about “devolution/evolution” (if I read his “should or can” qualification correctly). Slang spices up our speech. Over-use it, though, and the punch is lost.

Very over used.. ‘AMAZING’ and ‘LOVE’ especially on facebook!
Ever heard of a thesaurus?

When anyone,(often politicians) preface a statement with “to tell the truth,” “honestly,” “the fact of the matter”……or something similar it brings doubt to anything else that is said.

After reading those comments, I’m ready to vomit!
Can’t we all just get along?

I don’t really mind the word “epic’ it’s just when people combine the word with “fail” it becomes 10 times more annoying.

Faith

In business there’s a great deal of butchering and overused words. Here’s my list of the worst of the worst over-used business related words:

re-purpose
reach out
brilliant
revert (when ‘reply’ is needed)
IMHO
takeaway (when ’summary’ would do just fine)
learning….(used as a noun)
or worse “key learnings”
morphing (seems like things don’t transition or change or evolve any longer…instead everything seems to be morphing.
and my single biggest pet peeve that we can blame our email for affecting: the idea that RE: stands for ‘reply’. I’m old school. “RE:” stands for ‘Regarding: Subject Matter…. abcdefghigh…. etc., & etc..
Pet Peeve #2: people who still cannot spell even though spell check is just a click of the mouse away.

SHUT UP. shhhuttttup
shut-up. Shhhhutup
Get it? Duh.

What about the phrase: “It is what it is.” I keep hearing it a lot. What exactly does that mean? It seems oversused a lot.

Sorry @W.J.R. Halyn your comment TLDR.

@Carissa
It is just EPIC that you have never heard that word.

On Facebook, whenever someone talks about something nice that’s happened to them, someone else is bound to comment that it makes them “Well jel”.

Which means they are envious and would like it to happen to them too. Some people misspell it as ‘Well gel’, which shows that they didn’t understand what it stood for in the first place.

These are ADULTS saying it, for chrissakes. Makes me seethe…….

I am so tired of profanity! When did it become so respectable to puncuate ones speech with expletives that should be omitted? I find it so offensive. People are less creative in their use of language today.

When supposedly intelligent people leave a comment, they end with: Just Sayin’. Waiters/Waitresses who respond, “No Problem” when you thank them.

How about “heads up,” as in, “I’m just giving you a ‘heads up’ on the situation. Aggghhh!!! Stop it!!!

Or the very grammatically incorrect, “don’t nobody got nothing.” A triple negative??? Really???

“It” by far is the most overused and meaningless word both spoken and written in the English language. Unsparing and senseless reliance on this word usually signifies a lazy mind bereft of a working and varied vocabulary.

I am tired of “tons” like in “There are tons of things on sale.” Ton is a measure of weight; use “many” or another synonym!

A word too commonly used is “basically”. A word that is used incorrectly and makes my skin crawl is “irregardless”. Use “regardless” instead.

“No problem” does not equal, yes, no, okay, thank you or you’re welcome!

We have fought a mighty battle to end the use of the phrase “a lot” but it doesn’t go away. The biggest culprits of being to lazy to think of an appropriate description for “a lot of people”, “a lot of money”, etc., are the people in the broadcasting media. Can’t they come up with an adequate description of a crowd or a financial amount, such as an approximation of the number of people or the total cost and let the viewed decide if it’s “a lot”. A lot is a piece of ground on which, typically, a house is built.

And, let’s stop using the term “diva” for any person that’s been in the music business for more than twelve months. Diva is a legend and not some upstart.

Also, end the use of the “OMG”, whether in abbreviated form or full use. It’s blasphemous and as a kid I was severely chastised for using such language.

I agree with Iain Findlay: the word “affect” usually is the more accurate word than “impact” which has taken on a jargon-y function. As has “leverage”. And the prevalent use of “journal” as a verb or “journaling” in university or counseling contexts is really annoying.

So tired of hearing ‘tasked’ or ‘tasking’. Why are so many nouns changing into verbs? Is there a verb shortage?

It’s not a word, but I get twitchy every time I see ellipses (…) used for pauses in sentences! This punctuation is to be used only for omitting words from quotes. Come on!

I listen to NPR radio a lot, and notice many speakers or interviewees begin every explanatory sentence with “so they……” This is definitely a boring trend. Retire the initial “so…” from use. S. Xoregos

Very recently, I have heard the word ‘random’ used to mean radical, or very special (I think). Is this something that anyone else has noticed?

All that, and no-one mentioned that the article should have a pound SIGN, not a sigh.

I suppose if this is a word site I can’t say I hate a gesture “High five” – and with words, although it was not new in 2012, I hate it when people say “so-o-o-o” instead of a simple one-syllable “so”.

Gotta admit, never heard of a “pound sigh” before.

“amazing” I am accused of forever ruining this word for my friends, co-workers and family by asking them to count how many times they hear or see it in a day — in ads, by newscasters, every day conversation. Either people are setting a really low bar for what causes them to be amazed, or it doesn’t mean anything any more.

Cray (or – cray cray). Amazeballs. Totes (as in: that’s totes cray cray)

I’m still obsessed with “at the end of the day” and “begs the question”.

Does anyone hear cray cray and think about crawfish? Or hear fiscal cliff and wish that you could push the person who said it off of it?

I can do with out the phrase “just saying”. What is the point?
The new “Kmsl”-killing myself laughing. Seriously?

To the Author:

In Humblebrag, the use of i.e. should be converted to e.g., as i.e. means “id est” – that is – and is akin to saying, ‘in other words’. E.g. means “exempli gratia” – example given – and is used in a demonstration of an aforementioned idea.

I find it funny that there’s a typo in an article that is so pedantic and nitpicky. Did you see it? “What began as a ‘pound sigh’ or ‘number sign’ and became a method…” I don’t know what a “pound sigh” is supposed to be. Maybe that exasperated noise you make when you look in the mirror and realize you’ve been gaining weight? I know an h looks an awful lot like an n, and spell check won’t catch that kind of error, but come on, I saw it right away. I shouldn’t have to proofread you guys too!

Stop saying EXACTLY. “I agree” will do.

“Anytime” as a word – you reminded me because you committed the crime!

I see “anytime” and “everytime” quite frequently, presumably analogous to “anywhere” and “everywhere”.

Will “any” and “every” be tacked onto the front of “everynoun”? Will the used car advertisement urge us to come and look at “everycar”? Will the sales person consider “anyoffer”?

Let me speak on Curating for a bit. While I agree that in a Web Site context, it is okay, it is a lot like Epic in that it is in danger of being overused to the point of ruining a word with a lot of weight.

People in the Information & Museum sciences worked really hard to earn a degree that allowed them to perform a public service of curating archives, art museums, libraries, or digital repositories.

Now everyone is calling themselves ‘curator’ because they have a Tumblr. Just because you have an eTrade account for example, does not make you a licenced Stockbroker. Or you have a law database you are a lawyer.

Seeing 12 year olds brag about how they curated their Photobucket is just wrong and is why I think Dictionary.com was griping.

To those of you (“you” still being the correct collective “you,” instead of “you guys,” “yinz,” or “y’all”) who have made the claim that languages evolve by the addition of new words and phrases, I would like to respond that while in many cases you may be correct, I do not see that happening with OUR language. Our language is going backward in time. The de-evolution is clear. Instead of grunting at one another in our caves, we’re using “like” and “omg” and “f*ck” to describe our surroundings and experiences. If this is truly the direction our language is supposed to be taking, “I like totally think it’s f*ckin crazy! Omfg it’s like… Epic bad, ya know???”
Go read a book. You really do only live once (I refuse to say YOLO). Do you really want to do it sounding ignorant and uneducated?

Literally is misused almost all the time…”I literally exploded.” You dont look exploded.

Most of these words are perfectly normal and usable words that people just use wrong or use way too much. If everybody would just use words correctly, we wouldn’t have any “worst words.” For example, if everybody actually used the word like to say that they actually like something, as in “I like chocolate,” nobody would be mad about them saying it.

I agree, however, that people should just stop using most of the words because they don’t even try to use them correctly. If you know you aren’t going to use a word how it is supposed to be used, you shouldn’t be using the word in the first place.

“Celebrity Chef” is used far too often

Faith is one of the worst words in the english language.

Let’s get rid of “at the end of the day” OK?

To the poster (am I using that word correctly?) who said: “After reading those comments, I’m ready to vomit! Can’t we all just get along?”, and to others who similarly dismiss those who strive for a higher level of communication, I have this response.

Your reaction sounds similar to those who love hurling the impossible to answer and always pugnacious “what’s your problem?!”.

Such responses are simultaneously defiant and dismissive. They’re as good as saying “I don’t want to hear any reasoned or legitimate argument you make, so shut up, you pissant.”

So no, poster, I’m afraid we can’t all “…just get along”, since that would mean giving in to the fast rising tide of virtually unintelligible english. You obviously wish that those with apparently higher standards than yours would just let english get beaten down to meaninglessness. Sorry—can’t sit by and watch us all be drowned by drivel.

TL;DL means “[text is] too long for YOU, my fellow web enthusiasts; [And therefore it's probably that YOU] didn’t read [it].

If I may, I don’t think it means what you think it means. That’s why TL;DL will never be “I skimmed.”

Obviously if I didn’t read it I can’t summarize it.

and yes there’s lots of typos there

and while i’m at it, the hash tag is called an octothorpe. spelling may be off there.