What is a business buzzword, and what makes them the worst?

Words become annoying buzzwords when they get overused, frequently misused, or are just plain vague. Terms with a perfectly good plain-English counterpart are especially hated. It’s a classic mark of jargon! If there’s a different word that you would say if you weren’t at work, check yourself: you’re probably using business jargon.

Based on a recent TrustRadius survey, here is the ultimate list of the 119 most-hated business buzzwords. These corporate cliches, in order of most-mentioned to least-mentioned, are full of juicy jargon, vague terminology, obscure metaphors, and problematic turns of phrase.

The 119 Worst Business Buzzwords for 2024

1. AI
2. Circle back
3. Disrupt
4. Cloud
5. Synergy
6. Take it offline
7. Agile
8. Bandwidth
9. Pivot
10. Teams (as a vern)
11. 110%
12. Leverage
13. Big data
14. Headwinds
15. Innovative
16. KPI
17. Low-hanging fruit
18. Networked
19. New normal
20. Ping
21. Reach out
22. Rockstar
23. Strategy
24. Table this
25. Giving back your time
26. Touch base
27. Value Add
28. Optimize
29. Digital transformation
30. Back pocket
31. Acronyms (FYI, MQL, SKO,SQL, ROI, etc.)
32. Dropping the ball
33. Fast follow
34. Data-driven
35. Paradigm shift
36. Drill down
37. Smarketing
38. 360
39. Delve
40. In-sync / A-sync (as in asynchronous)
41. Quick win
42. Harmonize
43. Double click
44. Put a pin in it
45. All hands on deck
46. On the same page
47. Single source of truth
48. Best of breed
49. Deep dive
50. Teambuilding
51. Just business
52. Re-group
53. Not contemplated
54. Seat at the table
55. Green economy
56. Top of your inbox
57. Level up
58. SME
59. Revisit
60. Nimble
61. Accelerating growth
62. Game changer
63. Silo
64. Out of the box
65. Wellness
66. Codify
67. Ducks in a row
68. Next-gen
69. Zoom fatigue
70. Work-life balance
71. Acquisition
72. Move the needle
73. Wrap my head around
74. Omnichannel
75. Track record
76. 30,000 ft. view, 10,000 ft. view, and other escalations of a top-down view
77. Forward you over to…
78. Evangelist
79. Restructuring
80. Fluid organization
81. AKA
82. Socialize
83. Scrum
84. Loops: “close the loop,” “looping back,” keeping someone “in the loop,” or the dreaded “feedback loop”
85. Lift and shift
86. Sligshot
87. Circular economy
88. Bubble up
89. Brownie points
90. Stakeholders
91. Partner–the verb (“Partner with us”) and the noun (“Business partner”)
92. Ideate / Ideation
93. Growth hack
94. Solve for
95. Quasi
96. Alignment
97. Industry-leaders
98. Holding pattern
99. Supercharge
100. Mental model
101. Prompt engineering
102. Core values
103. Nuance
104. Go forward
105. Scale
106. Shot on goal
107. Big picture
108. Surge
109. Zoom (as a verb)
110. In the weeds
111. Growth vectors
112. Moving forward
113. Zero trust
114. Standup
115. Blur spots
116. Squad
117. Operationalize
118. Culture (as in “company culture,” “corporate culture,” “startup culture,” or “creating a [inset adj. here] culture”)
119. Thought leader / Thought leadership

Whew! That’s a lot of jargon.

Why TrustRadius cares about business buzzwords

You might be asking yourself, “Why does a review site care about how many business buzzwords I hear every day at work?” Well, the words and feelings you have at work are the lifeblood of our business. That’s exactly what a review is, after all. (And ours are some of the longest in the industry–over 400 words on average.)

We’re in a unique position. We connect professionals who buy and use business technology with each other. We also connect them to the vendors that provide the products they use. There’s a lot of communication happening in those relationships. Some of it is on a one-to-one basis, but much of it is on a one-to-many basis. 

The use of buzzwords in the tech industry is especially rampant. The tech marketing lingo vendors project to their prospects and customers is even worse. But this is exactly why people love reviews. They’re relatable, candid, and easy to read. They haven’t been run through a buzzwords marketing machine. Reviews are written by humans who have used the technology products for their own business, and have some advice to share.We did this survey because words matter. In our business, we’ve seen that the more real, specific, accessible, and personal words are, the better results we (and our customers) get.

What do you think are the most annoying business buzzwords?

Did you see your (least) favorite term on the list? Or were the worst offenders missing? Take the survey for yourself here. You’ll be able to see how we sourced this list, and make sure your opinion gets heard!