10 of the most nefarious words in the English language

Cast these infernal abominations and annoying clichés into the abyss of wretched writing.

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Ragan Insider Content

New, terrible coinages are concocted every day, it seems.

Some grating word or phrase shoots into the public sphere and gets the meme treatment. Before long, the masses tweet and text it into the vernacular, and bam—six months later it’s in the dictionary. Just look at this nonsense. Do we want to live in a world that enshrines “chiweenie,” “glamping” or “embiggen” in our language’s most esteemed manual, guide and arbiter?

Yes, you say? Oh, well. Let’s at least agree that the following words are horrible and should be deleted upon sight:

Amazing

Wasn’t that burrito just, like, amazing?

It was tasty. It was delicious, even. It was not amazing.

This word has been overused to the point of meaninglessness.

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