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crutch word. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
crutch word, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
crutch word in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
From crutch + word.
Noun
crutch word (plural crutch words)
- A word that becomes a filler in conversation, or is used for verbal emphasis, without adding any meaning to an utterance.
- 2012 Jen Doll, ""A Literal Epidemic of Crutch Words," The Atlantic, 13 September 2012.
- Of course, we didn't list all the crutch words, because it appears we're living in a crutch word epidemic.
- 2016 O'Brian Gunn, ""Crutch Words that Hobble Your Writing," BKA Content, 29 December 2016.
- A crutch word is essentially a placeholder, something we say or sometimes even write when we can’t think of the right word to accurately describe what we want to convey.
- n.d. ""Words That Can Ruin Your Sentence: Actually," Dictionary.com: Everything After Z, 13 September 2012.
- Actually is the perfect example of a crutch word. It is meant to signify something that exists in reality, but it is more often used as a way to add punch to a statement (as in, "I actually have no idea").