London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Jun 12, 2025

No disrespect but... Susie Dent shares words public want axed

No disrespect but... Susie Dent shares words public want axed

No disrespect, but - going forward - it would be advisable not to start sentences with the word "So".

That is according to responses to a tongue-in-cheek tweet from Countdown wordsmith and lexicographer Susie Dent.

The language expert asked her 1.1 million Twitter followers which words and phrases they would like to see "banished" from the dictionary.

Topping the list was "Going forward" - another way of saying "in the future", and often used in a business context.

Other common expressions the public said they most take umbrage at include: "No disrespect, but", "like" as a filler word, "I wanted to reach out", and "I'm not gonna lie".

Dent posted what she described as an "unscientific analysis" of people's "excellent" responses.

She tweeted: "Happily, English is a democracy so it's up to us.

"And many of these are old beefs: 'like' as a filler was first used in 1778."


The top 10 are:


1. Going forward

2. No disrespect, but…

3. 'Like' as a filler

4. I wanted to reach out

5. I'm not gonna lie

6. Basically

7. Let's go offline

8. 'So' at the start of a sentence

9. The 'optics' of something

10. My bad

Dent tells BBC News many words or phrases people find incredibly annoying now "have actually been around for a very long time".

For example, the first reference in the Oxford English Dictionary to the word "gonna" was in 1806.

Taking a "deep dive" and "it is what it is" are two phrases she finds irritating.

She says the more people repeat common phrases, the more they lose their substance and impact because they no longer feel original, and the speaker is "jumping into a universal shorthand".

But she says some jargon can be "incredibly uniting" as it gives a sense of belonging.

"It's when it slips into the trite and the throw-away that I think it becomes annoying, and it's when so many people pick it up that there doesn't seem to be too much thought behind it," she says.

Her post, which has been retweeted more than 1,000 times, drew the attention of the actor and presenter Les Dennis, who simply replied "for my sins".

And the actor Hugh Bonneville responded with a suggestion of his own: "At this point, at this point."

Shakespeare was criticised by some contemporaries unhappy about his choice of language


Dent will often choose and share a word of the day on Twitter. Alongside Gyles Brandreth she co-presents a podcast, Something Rhymes with Purple, where the duo explore the "hidden origins of language".

She is also touring the country with her show: The Secret Lives of Words.

She continues: "Even Shakespeare was massively criticised by his contemporaries; they accused Keats of turning nouns into verbs.

"We've always had this sort of begrudging take on how English is evolving, but actually, I think the fact that we care about it so much means that it's in pretty good hands… or mouths."

Language is "infectious", she says, and people will need to make a concerted effort to be more creative if they want to break the habit of using stock phrases they find irritating.

She adds: "Of course, we can't banish anything from the dictionary because dictionaries are famously descriptive.

"We don't prescribe how language should be used. We describe how it is used.

"So really the only people that can get rid of these phrases that we find annoying is us.

"And we have to stop using them before they will become reduced currency, but it's probably going to take a while looking at some of these."

Michael Rundell, a linguist and lexicographer - now mostly retired - has been a dictionary editor since 1980.

He says number nine in the list shared by Dent - 'No disrespect, but…' - is a signal "that you're about to give an entirely disrespectful trashing of what your interlocutor just said, so I reckon it's pretty useful".

And he says he has "never understood" the objection to the word "basically".

"If you were to ask me for a word to ban it would be 'woke', originally a very positive concept… but now completely appropriated by the hard right, and used repeatedly as a general-purpose insult by people who don't really know what they mean."

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Pentagon Initiates Review of AUKUS Nuclear Submarine Pact
Meta to Invest $15 Billion in Scale AI to Advance AGI Goals
Rare Cancer Cases Triple Among Millennials, Alarming Doctors
G7 Finance Ministers Convene in Canada with Focus on Ukraine and Trade Tariffs
UK Spending Review Prioritizes Health and Defence Amid Budget Constraints
US Raises Security Concerns Over Proposed Chinese Embassy in London
Defined Benefit Pension Reforms Expected to Unlock Limited Investment
UK Industrial Strategy Launch Delayed Amid Budget Negotiations
Crick Institute Seeks Additional Funding to Attract International Scientists
Zia Yusuf Returns to Reform UK in New Role After Brief Resignation
Bezos's Lavish Venice Wedding Sparks Local Protests
US Urges UK to Raise Defence Spending to 5% of GDP
Europe Prepares for Historic Lunar Rover Landing
Italian Parents Seek Therapy Amid Lengthy School Holidays
British Fishing Vessel Seized by France Fined €30,000
Dutch Government Collapses Amid Migration Policy Dispute
Germany Moves to Expedite Migrant Deportations
UK Commits to 3.5% GDP Defence Spending Under NATO Pressure
Scientist Returns Royal Society Prize in Protest Over Elon Musk's Fellowship
Chancellor Proposes 'Housing Bank' and £25 Billion Social Housing Boost
UK Retail Sales Growth Slows in May Amid Consumer Caution
Home Secretary Directed to Find Budget Savings to Protect Police Funding
Rolls-Royce Secures Government Backing for UK's First Small Modular Nuclear Reactors
Domestic Buyers Capitalize on London Property Market as Non-Doms Retreat
Nvidia CEO Criticizes UK's Digital Infrastructure Amid £1 Billion AI Investment Pledge
UK Commits Additional £11.5 Billion to Sizewell C Nuclear Project
UK Unemployment Reaches Near Four-Year High as Wage Growth Slows
Chancellor Reinstates Winter Fuel Payments for Majority of Pensioners
Simone Biles and Riley Gaines Clash Over Transgender Athletes in Women's Sports
California Governor Disputes National Guard Deployment Amid Rising Tensions
Protests Erupt in Los Angeles with Symbolic Flag Burning
Israeli Forces Intercept Gaza-Bound Aid Vessel Carrying Greta Thunberg
IMF Warns of Severe Global Trade War Impacts on Emerging Markets
US and China Engage in Trade Discussions in London Amid Ongoing Tensions
Low Turnout Jeopardizes Italy's Citizenship Reform Referendum
EU Lawmaker Calls for Broader Exemptions in Supply Chain Legislation
France's Defense Spending Plans Threatened by High National Debt
European Small-Cap Stocks Outperform U.S. Rivals Amid Growth Revival
Switzerland Proposes $26 Billion Capital Increase for UBS
Germany's Merz Signals Continued U.S. Reliance After Meeting with Trump
Transatlantic Interest Rate Divergence Widens as Trump Pressures Powell
Sam Altman's Eye-Scanning Digital ID Project Launches in UK
Qualcomm to Acquire UK's Alphawave in $2.4 Billion Deal
Syria to Reconnect to Global Economy After 14 Years of Isolation
Trump Administration Issues New Travel Ban Targeting 12 Countries
Man Group Mandates Full-Time Office Return for Quantitative Analysts
JPMorgan Warns Analysts Against Accepting Future-Dated Job Offers
Builder.ai Faces Legal Scrutiny Amid Financial Misreporting Allegations
Japan Grapples with Rice Shortage Amid Soaring Prices
Goldman Sachs Reduces Risk Exposure Amid Market Volatility
×