Tag: English language

The not-vaunted, totally non–Ivy League Lake Superior State University has dropped its annual list of banished words, and you should 100% exile them from your vocabulary for the duration of this era, period.

First utilized in 1976 as a cringe-worthy publicity stunt to promote the little-known bastion of higher education by its public relations director, W.T. “Bill” Rabe, a Detroit-area PR guru (can we please banish that phrase?!), the list was released “as a safeguard against misuse, overuse, and uselessness of the English language.” The list was a game changer for LSSU, and has netted the university publicity for half a century.

Here’s the 2025 list of banished words:

1. cringe
2. game changer
3. era
4. dropped
5. IYKYK (if you know, you know)
6. sorry not sorry
7. skibidi
8. 100%
9. utilize
10. period

When it comes to this list, IYKYK, and if not, sorry not sorry, so go flush these overused and abused terms down your skibidi toilet and be done with them.