What Words or Phrases Should Be Retired in 2014?

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Questions about issues in the news for students 13 and older.

What words or phrases were overused in 2013? What expressions, catchphrases, neologisms or slang do you hope never to hear again in 2014? Why?

In “Words for the Dumpster,” Timothy Egan writes:

With the last tick of 2013, let’s throw out the most annoying, overused and abused words of the year. A few of these terms, “twerking” or “stay classy,” die a natural death when someone like John McCain starts using them — the aural equivalent of a comb-over. Others need a push.

Many of these words originated in the food world and would have been perfectly fine had they not migrated to the general population. Some came out of mid-management office talk. What these hapless clichés have in common is this: They have been so diluted by misuse that they’ve lost their meaning. And like bad holiday sweaters and Sarah Palin outrage, the following list is highly selective. To the Dumpster:

WHATEVER Long ago, “whatever” was a cover for inexpressive ignorance — Hitler invaded Poland and then, whatever. Now this word reigns as a facile dismissive: I know it’s Mother’s Day, but whatever. For the fifth year in a row, “whatever” was just rated the nation’s most annoying word in a survey done by the Marist Institute for Public Opinion, beating out the hardy perennials “like” and “you know” and “just saying.”

24/7 No longer a byword for helpful availability, 24/7 evokes bad hours, poor pay and some customer service rep in India trying to explain an HDMI cable at 3 a.m. My bank is 24/7, or so they say; after a half-hour discussion with someone from this stellar institution, the “associate” said I should Google the problem. Well, yes, because Google is 24/7 in the only way that this term makes sense: It’s robotic.

Students: Read the entire article, then tell us …

  • What do you think of Mr. Egan’s list of annoying words and phrases? Do they drive you crazy too, or are there other terms — maybe some used more by fellow teenagers than by the news media — that you can’t stand anymore? What are they?
  • Why do you think those particular expressions are so popular right now?
  • What words or phrases do you overuse? Why?

Comments are no longer being accepted.

saying “absolutely” instead of just YES.
it’s a standard response on radio talk show interviews that makes me cringe.


I think Mr. Egan’s list is completely true. I hate the word whatever, it is the word that represents laziness and lack of enthusiasm. And the word 24/7 reminds me of run down convenience stores. Although I think that there are worse terms out there used by teens. The word “like” is pretty high up on the list of annoying words. I hate OMG, LOL, WTF, and their cousins, but I’m not sure if they count as words. Although, I don’t know, everyone has a set of words that tick them off.


I think that many expressions are popular now because they are so often repeated that when you are in a conversation they just pop as the first thing that comes to mind. To be honest vocabulary is pretty limited in a conversation. Conversations are spontaneous and it’s not like anyone goes and thinks, “I’m gonna use the word capricious now,”. Most people just spurt out common phrases they have heard before, whether it be from tv or the internet.

What words or phrases do you overuse? Why?

I overuse the word “like”. I can’t help it it just comes naturally. You’d be surprised how many times you use it. It’s used to describe objects and fill in empty spaces in conversation. It’s hard not to use it, not many words in the dictionary can replace it. At least not many words you can think of on spot.

i think swag should definitely be thrown out..

I think the word Weave should be retired, Because girls get really annoying say” OMG HE HAS MY WEAVE AHHHHH”. Your just like really can you shutup please. I also belive when a girl says weave there are trying to be “ghetto”, but if you can afford fake hair you not “ghetto”.

I think “Oooh killem” should stay in 2013. Its annoying and I HATE IT.

I think “swag” should be thrown out with 2013. Swag is for losers who think they’re thugs. Who cares is you have swag. why can’t you just have pizazz.

I think the phrase “ooh kill’em” should stay in 2013. Even though I am guilty of using it myself, I started to find it annoying and somewhat overused.

I think ” Yolo ” Should be left in 2013.. You don’t live once.. You live everyday. And people say Yolo for partying and stuff like that . But if “You Only Live Once” , Shouldn’t you choose what you do carefully so you don’t ruin your reputation ?

I believe that “ain’t nobody got time fo that”” should stay in 2013… Ain’t nobody go time fo that..

Swag should be thrown out, swag is not cool. Swag was cool last year. And its just boring now. i dont think there is reason to say it anymore.

i agree with Sarah and i hate the saying ” Oooh Kill em’! ” and thinki it should be left behind in 2013.

I think that saying bad things should stay back in 2013. Find a better word to use or don’t say anything!

I have such a big list of words that i hate that contain most of the words on
Mr. Egans list. in fact there are so many on it that i cant list them all off the top of my mind. Here is a list of a few of them:
twerking, swag, whatever, 24/7, Miley Cyrus (partly due to the fact that she twerks), gay, Justin Bieber (partly because i think he is gay), etc. I cant really think of any words teenagers i know use more than the news media, at least none that I cant stand anymore. I personally think I dont overuse any words or phrases other than okay which is my answer to things that I dont really care about or that I dont have any need to know about. i think that expressions like “like” are popular because there are no other words to replace with in most situations it is used in other than in a boyfriend girlfriend situation or other stuff like that. the phrases used to represent groups of words in texting such as lol, omg, wtf, and their cousins I dont really care whether they stay or not. thats all I have to say on this matter.

i agree with sarah and helanna. “oooh killem'” and “swag” will be stuck in 2013 and they are both annoying.

I think “Because” should stop being used to explain something. EXAMPLE: ME: “why did you throw out my pizza?” Friend: “Because.” Another one is SWAG. SWAG is stupid and does not have any meaning. YET another word is YOLO. We know we only live once, but that doesn’t mean you have to make a song about it(I’m talking to you The Lonely Island!) YOLO is just another excuse to do dumb things!!!!!!!!!

I think that the word, or more so acronym, “yolo” should be made obsolete. Yolo means, “you only live once,” and is often used by popular icons in culture as an excuse to make bad choices that ruin their lives simply because they should be allowed to have fun. While I do believe that people should have as much freedom as possible when it comes to morality I also believe that there are obvious guidelines that everyone should follow. Laws made by government, for example, shouldn’t be broken because you believe that they are restricting without any actual evidence. I for one would never say yolo.

i think cursing is another thing that should stay in 2013. Cursing is words that people use because they dont know any other words. There is a dictionary to find words. Pull it out and use it.

“You’re so gay” should also be clearly thought through. It’s offensive to people everywhere. I feel bad for people who are too scared to express themselves when everybody is “so gay.”

Like is very annoying. Like why? Well like because like. No just No.

Words such as “Yolo'”, “Swag”, and “Twerking” are usually used in context by unintelligent people. People that follow these trends say that they will never die out, yet Yolo is already being used much less than in 2012 and 2013. By the year 2015 or 2016, these words would be dead or be dying. The word swag is just slang for swagger, yet the 2 are not used the same. Twerking is just something that unattractive girls do; it’s pathetic.

I think the overall use of any offensive words or bad language should stay in 2013. You don’t have to use those certain words. There is a whole book of other words you can use.

I also think that “YOLO” should be thrown out because it is used as a excuse to do bad or stupid things.

I think many words are over used, but the most irritable one would probably be ”just saying”. I think that one is the most annoying because people say that they’re kidding but they’re not. I admit that I say that a lot, like when I have an opinion but sometimes people say it when they have a really rude comment. They think they can just blow off the offensive part by adding: “just saying”. Hopefully this phrase will be gone before we now it.

i think the word “black” and “dark chocolate” is really annoying. Many people are racist now a days. When you call somebody black or dark there not. Like me, I’m black and racist people say “hey darkie” and also the n word. I think its rude and disrespectful. Its rude when they say “burnt cookie or “brownie” well I’m not burnt or chocolate. I’m a young African-american and I’m brown not dark. Sorry but Africans are dark.

I think the word YOLO should go away it has no use because its just for stupid people to do stupid things.