crutch word

noun

Etymology

From crutch + word.

  1. inherited from *werdʰh₁om — “word
  2. inherited from *wurdą — “word
  3. inherited from *word
  4. inherited from word
  5. inherited from word
  6. compounded as crutch word — “crutch + word

Definitions

  1. A word that becomes a filler in conversation, or is used for verbal emphasis, without…

    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.

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for crutch word. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA