People inside and outside of the business world love to use buzzwords without actually understanding what they mean, and they use them to the point where the meaning of the word either changes or disappears entirely.

Using certain buzzwords is the equivalent of a hipster letting everyone know their unique font choice or that they listened to a certain band way before anyone else: no one cares. Discovering the song earlier or later than everyone else doesn’t change the meaning behind the words or give you greater insight than those who listened later.

If you’re using business buzzwords to sound impressive, either with your boss or on your resume, you’re essentially shooting yourself in the foot. You’ll come off as using those words because they’re popular and sound nice because you have nothing else to offer.

In some cases, that may be true, but we know that most people use these words from a positive point of view. They want to show businesses they’re aware of the current trends so they stand out from the crowd; however, the problem with sounding nice is that it’s not enough to impress anyone in the business world.

You want to avoid sounding like everyone else, so in most cases, the best thing to do is to just avoid certain buzzwords. Let the language you use represent who you are as a person and why you’re better than everyone else. Here, we’re going to break down 25 business buzzwords that drive everyone crazy.

common buzzwords used in business infographic

The key takeaway here is that words can lose meaning over time if not enough attention is given towards how they’re being used. Buzzwords have become cliches and placeholders for the mundane, tedious, and time-consuming issues that will never as exciting as we try to make them out to be. They do have their place, but with everything in life, there has to be a balance.