Definition and Examples of Buzzwords in English

Definition and Examples of Buzzwords in English Buzzword is an informal term for a fashionable word or phrase thats often used more to impress or persuade than to inform. Also called a  buzz term, buzz phrase, vogue word, and fashion word. The second edition of Random House Websters Unabridged Dictionary  defines buzzword as a word or phrase, often sounding authoritative or technical, that is a vogue term in a particular profession, field of study, popular culture, etc. In  Communication at a Distance,  Kaufer and Carley nicely observe that buzzwords come under attack with the recognition that a person may be trying to pass off for substance or meat the hum of a buzzwords remote implications. Examples and Observations For months the [Federal Reserve] used the word ‘patience’ to describe its stance toward a rate hike. Having lost ‘patience’ in March, the new buzzword is ‘flexible.’ As used by the Fed, the terms are essentially synonymous. But get used to hearing ‘flexible.’ It’s going to be around for a while.(Dunstan Prial, Flexibility New Fed Buzzword. Fox News, May 14, 2015)Iterate- Weve long lamented the rise of trendy language in advertising and business, but while we’ve played buzzword bingo and occasionally pointed fingers at those who speak in clichà ©s, something more serious lies beneath the jargon.The catchphrases we use serve as a shared language- they’re how we signal our belonging to the tribe of marketers. But when highly precise terms are misappropriated in an attempt to project a false sense of authority, that’s when we lose meaning. . . .Iterate. Once iterate meant a design process where various eleme nts would progress through sequential steps, to hone in on the optimal solution; now it means nothing beyond merely describing a stage in a process.(Tom Goodwin, 8 Media Buzzwords That Weve Lost Forever. Adweek, 2014)The dictionary tells us that iterate means to do again and again. In its buzzword guise, it is one of many design terms that has jumped the rhetorical fence, pulled along by related terms like innovate, into philanthropy. Sexier than your grandmother’s pilot program, iterations mean trying something small, learning from it, and improving as you go along.(Lucy Bernholz, Buzzwords to Watch in 2015. The Chronicle of Philanthropy, December 8, 2014) Sound ScienceNo one . . . is sure what sound science means.The phrase has more to do with anti-regulatory lobbying than with laboratory results, said Donald Kennedy, the former head of the Food  and Drug Administration and now the editor in chief of the influential magazine Science.Sound science is whatever somebody likes, Kennedy said. Its essentially a politically useful term, but it doesnt have any normative meaning whatsoever. My science is sound science, and the science of my enemies is junk science.The phrase has been on a roll since 1992, when lobbyists for the tobacco industry argued that no sound science showed that secondhand smoke is a health hazard.(Iris Kuo, Sound Science Isnt Just a Catch Phrase- Its a Real Persuasive Technique. Knight Ridder Newspapers, May 3, 2006)Reform[T]oo often, the word reform is co-opted to add a veneer of credibility to lazy thinking and bad ideas. Reform must be more than a password politicians whisper in search of approval. Or a buzzword ta cked on to a poorly crafted policy. True reform isn’t a test of rhetoric, or salesmanship, or spin.(Bill Shorten, Reform Should Be More Than a Buzzword. The Australian, November 7, 2015) Leverage and DeleverageLeverage is a word heard frequently during the current financial crisis. It means borrowing heavily to maximize investment returns. The problem is that leverage was used to invest in mortgages that went bad. The new buzzword in the financial world is deleverage.(Chris Arnold, Financial Sectors New Buzzword Is Deleverage, Morning Edition, NPR, Sep. 19, 2008)Personalized LearningLets do a fact check. Personalized learning is a  buzzword  for software programs that act like automatic tutors: giving feedback, allowing students to go at their own pace and recommending lessons based on a students previous work.(Anya Kamenetz, Mark Zuckerberg Is Betting Tech Can Address Educational Equity. Is It That Simple? NPR, December 5, 2015) Buzzwords in Business Writing The Fortune 500 communications professionals surveyed for this stylebook are split down the middle when it comes to the use of buzzwords in business writing. Approximately half disdain buzzwords of any kind while the other half think some buzzwords are effective (for instance, bottom line, globalize, incentivize, leverage, paradigm shift, proactive, robust, synergy and value-added). As a general rule, use buzzwords judiciously, always keeping the readers in mind. If a buzzword is lively and capable of injecting some spunk into a dull sentence (and it does not alienate the readers), then use it.(Helen Cunningham and Brenda Greene, The Business Style Handbook. McGraw-Hill, 2002)Im  no fan of buzzwords. I dislike them so much I created my own buzzword to describe the fight against overused workplace gibberish: dynamic jargon disruption.  Its a phrase Im hoping will catch on, but even a nationally renowned dynamic jargon disrupter like myself will admit that some buzzwords have their place. One of those is engagement.You hear it a lot these days, and with good reason. Engagement, which is essentially how much you dig your job, has been shown quantitatively and qualitatively to have a direct impact on productivity.Its a simple concept, really. If you like your job and care about your job and feel invested in the work youre doing, youll work harder and the company will retain quality workers.(Rex Huppke, Engagement Is a Buzzword Worth Making Noise About. Chicago Tribune, April 17, 2015) Of all the buzzwords to evolve in management science, change may be the most venerable of all.  A buzzword is  assumed to represent such a good thing that its use and form are unexamined.(Jonathan I. Klein, Corporation Failure by Design. Greenwood, 2000)GranularityTheres that word again: granularity.Its a mouthful of a term used by guys like Army Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq; retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey; and White House press secretary Tony Snow. . . .Lately, people have been invoking the word to mean specificity. Certain things, such as the administrations vision for the future of Iraq, lack granularity. Newlyweds dreams, psychic-network predictions, and late-night kitchen-table get-rich-quick schemes also suffer from granularity deprivation. . . .Granularity is a hot word, says Mike Agnes, editor in chief of Websters New World dictionaries, in Cleveland. It gives people a word they can use for a new way of looking at thingswhether it be engineerin g, business, politicsand a new way of evaluating.It means depth of detail, he says. If you were a photographer or an astronomer, speaking of an image, you would use the term resolution.All of a sudden, Agnes says, granularity is a buzzword.(Linton Weeks, Granularity: The Nitty-Gritty About This Particulate of Speech. The Washington Post, Feb. 7, 2007) Buzzword Bingo in the U.K.Office jargon has become so prevalent in the UK, people are using phrases and happily admitting they have no idea what they are talking about. A new survey by Office Angles found 65% of those who attend daily meetings frequently encountered business jargon.It has even spurned a new boardroom pastimebuzzword bingo, in which employees gleefully tick off corporate-speak used by their bosses.(Buzzword Bingo: Coining the Lingo, BBC News, Feb. 15, 2000)The Coming and Going of BuzzwordsEvery decade seems to have its particular buzz words that roar through the culture and become mantras in media, business, and political lexicons, then disappear after a few years like Boy George. Topping the business charts in 1970s was the very buzzy Management by ObjectiveMBO. CEOs and Governors twitched with excitement over it. And remember synergism, in the 1980s? It sounded vaguely sexual. America was going through one of its frequent merger cycles and synergy was the yellow bri ck road. That is until vertical integration came along.(Tom Alderman, The Best Buzzwords of the Year. The Huffington Post, September 25, 2008) The Lighter Side of Buzzwords (Simpsons Style)Executive:  We at the network want a dog with attitude. Hes  edgy, hes  in your face. Youve heard the expression lets get busy? Well, this is a dog who gets  biz-zay! Consistently and thoroughly.Krusty the Clown:  So hes  proactive, huh?Executive:  Oh, God, yes. Were talking about a totally outrageous  paradigm.Meyers:  Excuse me, but  proactive  and  paradigm? Arent these just  buzzwords  that dumb people use to sound important? Not that Im accusing you of anything like that. Im fired, arent I?Executive:  Oh, yes.(The Itchy Scratchy Poochie Show.  The Simpsons, 1997)