‘It Is What It Is’: More Annoying Phrases to Avoid

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A few weeks ago PR News' SVP and group publisher Diane Schwartz listed some of the most annoying sayings and phrases that are over-employed by many communicators. This "epic list" was itself a follow-up to an earlier blog post that asked readers to offer their own suggestions.

And the suggestions just keep coming from PR News readers. Here's the latest batch:

  • "Looping in"

  • "Let's agree to disagree"

  • "A place at the table"

  • "Bang for the buck"

  • "Fast-forward to..."

  • "Reach out to"

  • "We'll address it later"

  • "Double-down”

  • "I know, right?"

  • "You know what I mean?"

  • "We're killing it"

  • "I’m going to bat for you"

  • Anything with “literally” or "virtually" in it

  • "Without further ado"

  • "Epic fail"

  • "Because of uncertain conditions"

  • "Out of pocket"

  • "Quite frankly"

  • "I couldn't care less"
     

  • "Untimely death"      

Keep ’em coming.

Follow Jamar Hudson: @jamarhudson 

123 responses to “‘It Is What It Is’: More Annoying Phrases to Avoid”

  2. “Pre-sell” – meaning you’ve got to get your internal champion to endorse an idea or proposal before it gets presented to a his/her boss or colleagues.

  4. “Those ones”. My highSchool English teacher would be “rolling over in her grave” . Can dead people do that? But back to These ones and Those ones. …

  8. We need to make sure they have “Skin in the game”. I also hate it when people use allot meaning many and not the actual meaning allocate.

  9. Not for nothin’ but . . .

    REALLY?
    Not so much . . .

    and last but not least: I’m nauseous instead of I am nauseated.

  11. I want to agree with comment No. 39. If you eliminate everyone who uses at least one of these phrases, you eliminate 99%+ of the populace.

  16. “Could care less” – It’s actually “Could NOT care less”… Think about it!

  17. particularly by football announcers: “trickeration” instead of a trick play

  18. Innernet. I guess it’s the inner part of the net? Could be applied to “international”, too, among millions of others…

  19. “Quite candidly…” Which is meant to be taken as “I’m about to blow some smoke up your butt about a topic I can’t be honest with you about but need to say something about.

  21. “Think outside the box” is the most unoriginal in-the-box phrase of them all.

  22. “We don’t know what we don’t know…” is one that grates me. Older ones that I still hear a lot are “cross-functionality” and “synergy.” 1996 called – they want their business cliches back!!!

  23. 1. “So” at the beginning of every sentence
    2. “kind of” or “sort of” to buy time

  24. “Efforting” (It’s NOT a verb, no matter how often you try to make it one!

  27. “What’s not to love”. The English, actually. Try “what’s not lovable”

  28. While many of these phrases I agree with being ridiculous, “It is what it is” is actually quite useful if you understand it’s deeper meaning. It is simply a variation on the Law of Identify, first recorded by Plato, also known in logic classes as “A is A”. So be careful poo-pooing this one.

  29. I’m curious why people object to “Let’s table that” and “We’ll address it later.” Neither of these strikes me as a cliche or overused expression. What am I missing?

  31. From bad news anchors: “totally devastated” (it is or it isn’t devastated). And DC think: “in that space”

  32. I can’t stand “fricking”, “whatever” and “synergy”.

  34. “We’re thrilled to announce…” This overheated phrase is overused.

  35. “In and of itself…” could be dropped from any sentence without changing the meaning. “At the end of the day” it’s nothing more than a vocalized pause.

  36. “You know what I’m saying?” after ever sentence is really annoying because it infers I’m having difficulty understanding the English language, when, in fact, it’s the person speaking having a problem expressing themselves.

  40. “mobilize” almost as bad as “incentivize” (but i haven’t heard that lately).

  43. I can’ t believe no one has said “going forward” or “on a go-forward basis”

    Also “flushing out” an idea when they mean to say “fleshing out”

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