6 Words That Need To Go: Vocabulary Exile
Are you sick of certain words or phrases? Has their time come and gone? What are the words that need to go? For roughly 50 years now, Sault Ste. Marie’s Lake Superior College has released a “Banished” words list. It started back in 1976 as the “List of Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Mis-Use, Over-Use and General Uselessness.”
1. Cringe. If you are using “cringe” in 2025… you are the definition of the word.
2. Game changer. Corporate catchphrase. It’s more beat than grandma’s rug.
3 Dropped. Rather than saying, “The new album dropped,” the suggestion is a return to words like “released” and “introduced.”
4. Skibidi. Does anyone even know how to accurately define “skibidi.” It’s a Gen Alpha thing and they can’t agree on one definition so maybe it’s time to put “skibidi” in the toilet.
5. 100%. The reason it hit the list is because of overuse. Personally, I’m OK with 100%… it’s 100 with no percent (implied) that I would like to see take a nap in 2025.
6. Period. Example: “The Lions are the best football team, period.” While the statement is true, this way of saying it has also been over used for years now.
You can check out Lake Superior’s full list and their reasoning HERE
A Few of Last Year’s Words That Need To Go
There are 10 words that are banished each year by Lake Superior. Last year’s list of words that need to go included “Hack,” “Rizz,” “Obsessed,” and “Slay.” Jenny-Jenny is not going to like hearing about this… she is definitely guilty of using more than one of these words in the last week alone.