Top 9 Horrible Words

9. Alright

Example sentence: "Y'alright mate?"

This is one of those words that owes its existence to everyday speech. "Are you all right, mate?" No Aussie talks like that and anyone that makes the effort to separate the two words is a snob, alright?

8. Ginormous

Example sentence: "That thing is ginormous!"

You take you young son to the museum and he sees a gigantic model T-Rex. As he tries to take in the full majesty of this prehistoric carnivore his curious mind tries to describe how awesome the dinosaur appears. 

"That T-Rex is enormous! No, it's huuuuge! No, wait, it's... it's... GINORMOUS!"

This word actually has merit when you are writing from the perspective of a child. In fact, experimenting with language in this manner is a very effective way of getting readers into the mind of a young protagonist. But if you are an adult, don't even think about it.

You are adults!

7. Orientate

Example sentence: "Wait. We need to orientate ourselves or we'll get lost."

Those hilarious businessmen and women are always making up words. In their world this "word" means "to take a new employee through orientation". This is by no means the worst business word  - that is coming up later - but it is still a shocker. Why not guide, teach, train, instruct, mentor, etc?

Another usage means "to gain one's bearings", but orient is better in every way. It is shorter and it doesn't have the confusion of being associated with orientations.

6. Irregardless

Example sentence: "Irregardless, I think we should proceed with Nick's course of action."

Quickly, what's the difference between flammable and inflammable? There is no difference. I wonder how many people fell for that ... Well, like the words in this example, there is no difference between regardless and irregardless. Most dictionaries consider this a mash-up of irrespective and regardless.

5. Rationalise

Example sentence: "I think we should rationalise our files."

Ah, now we're getting into the good stuff. Rationalise is actually an accepted word. The main definition states that when someone rationalises they are explaining their behaviour or attitude. In a business sense it means they are making something more efficient by organising the system or dispensing with unnecessary components.

The problem is that it is used for such simple tasks. People are "rationalising" everything. Can you just say "cleaning" or "stacking" or "organising"? You sound so pretentious when you say you want to "rationalise" the dishes.

4. Administrate

Example sentence: "Please administrate a dictionary to those who use this word."

The correct word is administer. That is all.

3. Actionable

Example sentence: "The next task is now actionable."

Presumably, this means "ready to have an action applied to", but wouldn't "ready" or "prepared" or "active" get the job done? Yes. This word seems to have had its horrible birth in legalese (the poor thing!) before it trickled down into popular usage.

2. Conversate

Example sentence: "Why don't you conversate more often? You're so antisocial!"

I did a double take when I first heard this word. It ticks all the horrible word boxes. It sounds pretentious, its meaning is ambiguous (conver-sate: satisfying through conversation?), and an existing word does the job better.

1. Guesstimate

Example sentence: "My best guesstimate for when this horrible word will disappear is about 50 years."

Stewie is judging you.

I struggle to control myself when I hear this piece of gobbledegook. More than any other word, this one sounds like nonsense. And it is. An estimate is a guess, so what the hell is a guesstimate? A guess guess?