RIP, Dead Words!

Image by Paul Brennan from Pixabay

Dead words. What are dead words? The first time I ever heard about dead words was when my daughter came home from Ms. Settle’s seventh grade English class and gave me the list. I don’t remember the project they were assigned  to get rid of such words, but I know that a lot, pretty, good, and nice were on the list. A lot appears to be dead even if you use it correctly — as two words.

A dead word is one that is used so often it adds nothing to writing or conversation. Dead words are often also hazy, fuzzy and not very descriptive.  What is good, anyway? Well, it does happen to be the most commonly used adjective in the English language. 

The pizza is good.
You look nice.
I have a lot of homework. 

How about

The pizza is spicy and delicious.
You sparkle in that dress.
My homework will take me two or three hours to finish!

Well, you know what I mean.

Here is a (not complete) list of dead words. There is obviously no final and approved list of such words.

nice
good
a lot
stuff
things
awesome
okay
really
very
quite
bad
like
basically
pretty
etc.

Here are some overused, fuzzy, or redundant phrases. Best to stay away from these too.

I think
and also (redundant)
being that
considered to be
due to the fact that (how about just because?)
each and every
on account of
point in time
the reason why is (how about just because)
sort of
kind of
suppose to (if you must, it is supposed to)
use to (if you must, it is used to)

If you are writing, a thesaurus can always help you find a living word to use!

Check out this infographic from our friends at Proof Reading Services    for suggestions on how to avoid using the word bad — 730 suggestions. Of course, bad has many degrees, so the words are not all what you could call synonyms of bad. But next time you start to use a dead word, just think of all the living words you could use instead!

NEXT WEEK: Lists – Formatting and punctuating them
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