Or maybe we’ve simply forgotten about some of the other options: ambiguous, dubious, erratic, precarious, questionable, speculative, and inconstant. Maybe we’re clinging to what we know in times of, well, uncertainty. Like unprecedented, the word uncertain has dozens of synonyms (43, to be exact), but for some reason we all keep going back to the same word. “We’re living in uncertain times.” “We’re uncertain of the outcomes.” You aren’t alone if you’re feeling uncertain, and you aren’t alone if you’d rather not hear that word ever again. Instead of pulling this one out of vocabulary storage, try: bizarre, unparalleled, extraordinary, novel, unheard of, or singular. But perhaps every leader, news outlet, commercial, and celebrity doesn’t need to use that word quite so often.Īfter all, unprecedented has over 30 synonyms. They aren’t wrong this is an unprecedented situation. There’s also communal expansion, collective absence, and sociable extension, which all remind us we’re in this together, and we’re making these sacrifices in the name of being good neighbors and citizens. There’s civil separation, which calls to mind Gwyneth Paltrow’s conscious uncoupling, and makes this all sound very mindful and new age. But synonyms for this one can at least help us look at it in a different way. Social distancing is a part of the recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), so the phrase likely isn’t going anywhere. It’s ubiquitous, and it’s started to get on a lot of people’s nerves, either because they’re sick of hearing the same instructions over and over again or because the phrase itself invokes a sense of loneliness and isolation. It’s incredible how quickly social distancing went from being a phrase few people had ever heard to one that’s repeated all over social media, on the news, and in private conversations multiple times a day. Those all seem to better capture the inherent strangeness of this time. If you check for synonyms for new and normal, you come up with: strange routine, unusual standard, and unfamiliar order. This may be one time when it’s better to challenge ourselves to find a new phrase, rather than relying on one we already know. For instance, a couple who just had their first baby might tell friends and family they’re adjusting to their new normal.īut using the phrase to describe efforts to fight a global pandemic implies a sense of permanence that makes a lot of people uncomfortable. The phrase new normal is an oxymoron typically used to indicate a life event that is out of the ordinary and has a long-lasting or permanent impact on someone’s day-to-day routine.
Words and phrases you never want to see or hear again once this is over, and go …įrom social distancing to speaking moistly (shudder), here are the tiresome terms that topped the list-plus some help from to give you other ways to say them (if you really must).
So that’s why we used our Twitter to ask people to share the overused words and phrases they are utterly sick of hearing, and our fans did not hold back.
Like a lot of things that are happening during this time, hearing and reading the same words in the media, at home, and online can start to feel frustrating and tiresome. While the world is quarantined due to the novel coronavirus, it seems like we’re all struggling with this problem.ĭay after day, the same handful of phrases clog our social media feeds and rise to the top of our trending tickers. You may find yourself straining to remember terms you learned a long time ago, or repeating the same words and phrases over and over again because you just don’t know what else to say. When surprising, shocking, or scary things like the COVID-19 pandemic happen, it’s sometimes difficult to find the words to talk about it.
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