crutch word
English
Alternative forms
- crutch-word, crutchword
Noun
crutch word (plural crutch words)
- A word that becomes a filler in conversation, or is used for verbal emphasis, without adding any meaning to an utterance.
- 2012 Jen Doll, ""A Literal Epidemic of Crutch Words," The Atlantic, 13 September 2012.
- Of course, we didn't list all the crutch words, because it appears we're living in a crutch word epidemic.
- 2016 O'Brian Gunn, ""Crutch Words that Hobble Your Writing," BKA Content, 29 December 2016.
- A crutch word is essentially a placeholder, something we say or sometimes even write when we can’t think of the right word to accurately describe what we want to convey.
- n.d. ""Words That Can Ruin Your Sentence: Actually," Dictionary.com: Everything After Z, 13 September 2012.
- Actually is the perfect example of a crutch word. It is meant to signify something that exists in reality, but it is more often used as a way to add punch to a statement (as in, "I actually have no idea").
- 2012 Jen Doll, ""A Literal Epidemic of Crutch Words," The Atlantic, 13 September 2012.
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