The most overused word in business, allegedly

According to The Wall Street Journal, one word has become the era’s defining buzzword—although it isn’t the most popular among press release writers.

In the last 24 hours, the words “innovation,” “innovator,” and “innovative” appeared in 40 press releases pushed out across the major distribution services, according to a search on PRFilter.com.

Last February, a similar search through PRFilter.com found the words used 452 times in a 24-hour period.

No wonder The Wall Street Journal‘s Leslie Kwoh singled out “innovation” as a word that’s “in danger of becoming a cliché—if it isn’t one already.”

WSJ searched annual and quarterly reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and found some form of “innovation” mentioned 33,528 times last year. That represents a 64 percent increases from five years ago, according to the report.

Meanwhile, more than 250 books with “innovation” in the title have been published in the last three months.

The most popular buzzwords in press releases

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