Are there words in our language that are overused? What are they? Why are they overused?

Yes: Yes, there are words in our language that are overused. Words such as "like" while originally being used for comparison are now used for interjections for conversation. According to grammarcheck.net, the English language has quite a few words that are overused. Words such as "literally" are used in figurative context. The language is turning itself upside down. The word "honestly" is used to confirm if people did or didn't see or do something. These words are overused because most of them have become interjections to continue to talk about something. The word "like" is a wonderful example.


No: No, the words in our language are not overused because they are used at the right moments. When you have a pause in the middle of a conversation, you replace that pause with a "like" so as to keep the conversation moving. Words such as "the," and "are," are vital in sentences. If you don't use the or are, you would have sentences like this,

"We__ going out to walk ___ the dog."

That sounds like an incomplete sentence to me. Words such as "like" are used to compare objects or people or emotions. These so called "overused words" are actually vital to sentences.


From interviewing people, I can draw the conclusion that the majority believe that there are words in our language that are overused. Their reasons were different. One was that there were certain times when a word is used too much and won't be used after. Such as how in the 80s, people were saying "rad" or "wicked". Another response was that they thought that there are lots of words that are overused. For example, the words "like" and "yeah" specifically because they are improper and don't belong in everyday conversation.

My opinion: I believe that our language is full of overused words. When I have a conversation, I will most likely use the words "like" and "literally" too often. This is because my brain subconsciously chooses these words to fill in those few second gaps in our conversation in order to make our statement a full one. I will hear some people say the word "like" at least 20 times at the most. This leads me to believe that the reason behind this is that these words have become speaking habits. We've used the words "like" and "literally" so much that it has become something that we must say in every conversation