And so forth and so on. Via a dialogue in our comments:"I have a co-worker that uses and so forth and so on many times in a conversation. It's infuriating." "Yes! It's like the person is either leaving out part of the story that you may want to hear or just doesn't care much about what they're saying to you. Not a fan!"

Definitely. Definitely! Also: Absolutely.

Essentially. "A highbrow version of basically."

Exponentially. "How could you leave out exponentially, a crutch word that might be used accurately once in a thousand times? Something grows exponentially when it grows by the same factor repeatedly over many periods of time, as in compound interest or the population of rabbits in the absence of predators. The exponent can be negative as well, but when used as a crutch the speaker never is referring to that aspect!"

Fantastic. "I've noticed that a lot of people say something is fantastic but don't at all mean to suggest that the thing comes out of the world of fantasy and imagination. People say something is incredible but they don't meant it's devoid of validity, but mean they were unprepared for the event. People say something is unbelievable when the thing doesn't require belief at all, just a pair of eyes to see what's in front of them," explains one commenter.

Fascinating. Rarely used with earnest intent; prone to seeming patronizing even if it isn't. Try it, say fascinating like you think whatever it is you're responding to is, in fact, fascinating. It's difficult.

Going forward. Better to give an actual implementation/start date to which one will go forward, because save a time machine, we are not going backward. A commenter says of this one, simply, "Ugh."

If you will. One commenter marks it as the sure sign of a whopper, making an example of Dick Cheney: "They're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency."

I'm not gonna lie. Oh, really? (Also: Oh, really?)

In fairness/to be fair. The thing about life is, nothing is, though your sense of justice in in the right place. But also, why be fair? Just be sure of what you want to say.

In the final analysis. This is the science/researchy way of saying At the end of the day.

Irregardless. Nonstandard!

It is what it is. According to one Poynter commenter, this "is the new crutch phrase I keep hearing. It serves no purpose." It is what it is, ergo, it is pointless.

Look. As a one-word command, bossy.

Kind of/Sort of. These are vague terms that allow you to be less specific and meaningful in all ways, and should therefore be cut as much as possible.

Mark my words. This should be unnecessary to say and has a bit of the aggressive impact of an actually/I told you so.

Obviously. Writes one reader via email,

Author, Obviously, you missed one of the best crutch words to use to show how obtuse your conversation partner is and will always be.

Another writes that it's the most overused word in the English language. Obviously.