How To Stop Using These 10 Crutch Words

Literally. Um. Like. Essentially. We all have words we find ourselves using so often that even we’re sick of hearing them. We have a slideshow all about them, too.

But, what about the more unique crutch words that we end up using too often because we tried to expand our vocabulary away from the “likes,” “ums,” and “buts.” Sometimes, words we latch on to aren’t as annoying to everyone else as they become to us … because we found them, liked them, and now use them way too often.

Here’s a look at some of our Thesaurus.com fans’ weirdest word hurdles and the synonyms we’re suggesting to help get them out of those linguistic traps they seem to be stuck in.

Indeed

Yes, it’s a good word. It’s true. Indeed, it even means something is factually correct. Of course, saying “factually correct” is a little long and stuffy … so try one of these synonyms to throw a little flavor into that vanilla conversation.

These days, the words you say too often aren’t always spoken. So, if you’re catching yourself writing indeed too much and sounding like your 80-year-old uncle, try the ? (hundred points emoji) instead.

LMAO

When you’ve got funny friends, you laugh. It’s what you do. But, when your friends are funny via text or on social media, they can’t hear you busting a gut. Unless you really are laughing your rear end off every single time (which sounds painful), you might want to mix things up … for sincerity’s sake.

And hey, we even have some more acronyms for you.

F**k

Yup, it’s everyone’s favorite four-letter word because it’s just so much fun to say, right? Then again, it’s not terribly romantic … or appropriate when you’re the guest speaker on career day at your local pre-school. So, we’ll just leave these options here for you.

For those sexy times:

For the pre-school career day:

Y'all

Y’all is such a sweet little crutch word. That southern charm just rings through when people use this word in their sentences, right?

Yes it’s adorable, and yes we love the south … but when you use y’all to start or end every sentence it gets a little old. Here are a couple replacements that aren’t as southern but still get the point across …

? - Upside-down-face Emoji

How could anyone get sick of this little guy? He’s so playful and cute … and in fact a lot of people use this emoji to convey sarcasm or playfulness via text … because that’s one hard thing to convey in the written word. But, if you find yourself using this emoji too much … maybe cut back on the sarcasm? Or, try out these alternatives:

Ridiculous

Conversations take a turn for the ridiculous once you’ve used ridiculous a ridiculous amount of times. Save yourself from looking ridiculous … especially if you work in HR. You’ve got good options:

Awesome

You don’t even have to overuse awesome to step into trouble with some folks. There’s a long and storied linguistic debate about whether the word should be used when you don’t actually mean “it produces awe.” So, let’s just side step that bone of contention and study some seriously awesome, er, great synonyms:

And, a little word of advice from the Thesaurus … don’t use awesomesauce in place of awesome … please, please, please.

Whatever

So your friends threw an intervention to prevent you from fully turning into a character from Clueless. It’s time to send whatever back to the 90s and learn to change the subject without it:

Apparently

The word apparently managed to make one little boy from Northeastern Pennsylvania a bona fide viral star a few years ago. But, repeating apparently is Noah Ritter’s schtick. It’s time you get your own. Maybe one of these will do?

Um

Of course, one of the top words that people say too much is the word um … it dates back to at least the 1670s! We’ve talked about it a lot too … but this time around, we’re giving you some alternatives to say instead of that annoying little two-letter word.

Dating back to at least the 1670s, um is the undisputed king of crutch words! Often people don’t even realize they’re letting those two letters slip while they’re trying to think of the next thing to say. If you find yourself serving up too many ums, try these less heard air-fillers on for size:

Or, if you really want to spice it up … spit out an umbridge in the middle of your sentence. That’s different.