15 Overused Phrases That Make People Sound Less Intelligent

We’re free speech absolutists. You’re free to say anything you want. You’re even free to use the same tired, meaningless, overused phrases as lots of other people.

And we, meanwhile, are free to make fun of you. It’s not a perfect system, but it’s better than the other options. So with that, here are 15 overused words and phrases that make people sound less smart.

Dumb overused phrases cross all age demographics. “OK boomer” is a dismissive way of saying someone is old and out of touch.

Sometimes they are. But sometimes someone is out of touch because they refuse to consider other points of view, not because they’re old.

And many old people are in fact wise, having lived through many decades on this earth and come to recognize that history repeats itself.

Many people use this word when they mean to say its opposite, “figuratively.” Even when someone stumbles onto the correct use of the word “literally,” it’s an incredibly overused phrase. Let’s give it a long, long break.

Also, we’re fine with Rob Lowe using this phrase for his podcast, because it’s a joke.

This one is ubiquitous in the entertainment industry —every trailer or preview of an upcoming film or television show is teased as a “sneak peak.”

First, the rhyming: Blech. Also, this sounds like something perverts would say. But most importantly: It’s just an ad.

Trailers, previews, first looks: All of these are ads. Do we have to pretend we’re part of some secret club?

This is one of those very dumb overused phrases disguised as a smart phrase. They’re quite popular in the corporate world.

Have you ever studied anything about genetics? DNA is hereditary material — it comes from nature, not nurture. So if you want to say a disease is in your DNA, go right ahead. (And we’re sorry to hear that.) But learned traits cannot be in your DNA. So please drop the nonsense about saying “kindness is in our DNA” or “positivity is in our DNA.”

And also, unless you’re talking about your actual family members, don’t say “our DNA.” You don’t share DNA with people you met at work. And don’t say your company has anything in its DNA, because companies are not human, as you’ll learn next time one fires you.

Do you know how boring you sound when you use this, one of the most used of all dumb overused phrases?

If you’re on the left, using it unironically, you sound pretentious at best.

If you’re using it pejoratively, you’re admitting that you don’t have the vocabulary to explain what about something you find objectionable. We’ve noticed that people will often call a show or movie “woke” just because it features women, anyone not white, or anyone LGBTQ. What about acknowledging the existence of these people is a problem? Please explain.

If what you don’t like is preachiness, just say that. We’ll probably agree. We’ve all rolled our eyes at a show or movie that is condescending or performative about its morality. Obviously no one deserves a prize just for baseline-level human decency. And no one wants to sit through a two-hour lecture posing as a movie. But saying something is “woke” just marks you as overly reliant on dumb overused phrases.

Please stop calling every class a “master class,” especially if it takes place over an hour, or a single afternoon. No matter how smart or famous the person presenting the class, that’s not a “master class.” It’s just a class. And an overview, at best.

Malcolm Gladwell has said it takes 10,000 hours to achieve true expertise in a given area. You aren’t going to become a great cinematographer, for example, by taking any single class. Even a “master class.”

The last person who sounded cool using this word was Prince, more than four decades ago.

It’s become one of those dumb phrases that doesn’t mean anything. The fact that one person thinks something is good and that someone else thinks it’s bad doesn’t make it controversial — it makes it normal. Everything is controversial. Somewhere out there is an idiot who thinks Leave It to Beaver is problematic. That doesn’t make it problematic.

This is kind of the liberal version of “woke” — an overused phrase used to criticize anything that makes someone vaguely uncomfortable, for reasons they are unable to sufficiently explain.

Is something rude? Hurtful? Cruel? Dishonest? Take time to explain why, if you want anyone to respect your opinion.

An aside: We liked comedian Moshe Kasher using “Problematic” as the title of his Comedy Central TV show back in 2017, because he was using it with a lot of ironic distance.

We’re sad that a lovely word has taken such a nasty tone. “Snowflake” refers to a weak-minded person who can’t tolerate anything offensive.

But… one could make the case that it takes more character to stand up and say something is wrong than it takes to shrug it off. Do you have more respect for the person who says a racist joke is racist? Or the person who wants to say it’s racist, but says nothing, to keep the peace?

Our favorite person is the person who comes up with a clever quip about the racist joke teller, thereby negating the joke. That person isn’t a snowflake. They’re witty.

Just say “I’m about to brag,” because that’s what you’re doing.

Or better yet, don’t brag.

“We did a thing” is also one of the most annoyingly cutesy overused phrases.

Anytime someone says something less than positive about someone else, the media reports it as someone “slamming” someone else. (We’ve done this, we apologize, we will try to do better by only reporting actual slams as slams.)

This is part of the internet race to the bottom in which hyperbole wins because people don’t take the time for nuance. But if you want this kind of nonsense to stop, it’s on you, the reader, to seek out better sources of information.

Not every awkward interaction is “cringe.” Sometimes people who do stuff you consider “cringe” are just having fun and don’t mind looking silly.

When you call everything “cringe,” you can come off as a little self-important or humorless.

But at least you don’t sound as dumb as people who misuse our next overused phrase.

Many people have legitimate trauma. But too many people use this phrase to describe any stressful or uncomfortable interaction.

When you do this, you pull focus, attention and perhaps resources from people with legitimate trauma — those who’ve fought in a war, survived a genocide, or are dealing with a disease in their DNA, for example.

Imagine if someone said, “my husband died,” and you responded with “I know how you feel, because the cat I sometimes feed recently stopped coming around,” This is how you sound when you refer to minor disappointments as trauma.

This isn’t the most common of dumb phrases, but it is our least favorite phrase. It ruined the movie Arrival for us — truly.

It went from an A+ to a C+ the moment Jeremy Renner asked Amy Adams if she wanted to make a baby.

This is one of those overused phrases that just means someone or something makes you uncomfortable, as in, “Guys who talk about NFTs give me the ick.”

It’s fine to just say, “Publicly discussing your investments is tacky and gauche — even made-up investments like NFTs.”

You may also like this List of the 15 Greatest SNL Characters (featuring the Bronx Beat ladies, above) or this list of the 15 Best SNL Sketches.