When Words Become Invisible

I sat down to write about "words that no longer mean much or are 'invisible'." Multi-tasking got the best of me so I paused to check the RSS reader. And there it was: Seth Godin's post on "When Symbols Become Invisible." He notes rightly:

"Logos, holidays, street warning signs... they're all a blur when you've seen them often enough."

How about words that become invisible?

Excellence

The bottom line is...

At the end of the day. . . (the new "bottom line")

To tell you the truth...(were you lying the last time?!)

Going forward. (An extraneous phrase tacked on to the end of a sentence that already indicated future movement. Such as, "We will increase our market penetration in Estonia by 20% going forward). Are you going to increase it by going backward?

These words and phrases add nothing to, and subtract a lot from, the impact of a conversation or presentation. Pay attention to your own language. See what kind of invisible phrases you can make completely invisible by putting them in the great verbal trashcan of life.

To tell you the truth, at the end of the day you'll be commended for your excellence going forward.

Send in your personal favorites

Click on comments and weigh in with your favorite invisible words/non-words/irritating buzzwords. I'll put together a post as the collection grows.

Photo source: www.excessvoice.com 

Comments

[Valeria Maltoni]

In no particular order:

* Cutting-edge (so overused we have no idea what it means, of what?)
* Proven (if it isn't, why would you mention it?)
* To be brutally honest (be honest, but hold on the brutality, I am sensitive)
* Empowerment
* Outstanding, exceptional, superb, wonderful, super-duper... it seems we could take a ladder and grab the sky these days.

I'll be curious to see what other people come up with. The consulting industry is particularly guilty of coining tremendously suggestive and quite empty words to up each other.

[Steve Roesler]

Thanks for adding those offenders to the list, Valeria.

You have now provided empowerment to add yet another exceptional, cutting-edge example: "state-of-the-art."

Your invisible word radar is working well.

[Bob]

Basically there aren't many things that people say that really bother me at the end of the day.