Since 1976, Lake Superior State University (LSSU) has compiled an annual list of words that should be banned with the goal to…
uphold, protect, and support excellence in language by encouraging avoidance of words and terms that are overworked, redundant, oxymoronic, clichéd, illogical, nonsensical—and otherwise ineffective, baffling, or irritating.
Over the last 50 years, LSSU has received tens of thousands of nominations from the public and have recommended nearly 500 words that should be banished. As a words matter guy, I believe it’s a noble pursuit but ultimately, at the end of the day, it has little impact. In fact, ‘at the end of the day’ has been banished three times by LSSU; in 1999, 2022, and 2024.
The ten winners losers banished words for 2026 are as follows:
- 6-7
- Demure
- Cooked
- Massive
- Incentivize
- Full stop
- Perfect
- Gift/gifted (as a verb)
- My bad
- Reach out
From my point of view, this list isn’t perfect because a couple of them aren’t words and it doesn’t include the phrase ‘game changer.’ Tech bros seem to be incentivized by the number of times they call their fledgling offering a game changer when it actually massively disappoints and they should demure instead. Don’t ever use that phrase – full stop.
I’ve now blogged about this annual list 10 different times since 2011. That’s simply too many and the topic is cooked. My bad.
Reach out if you have a new idea for an annual blog topic.
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