101 words we'd like to hear less of in 2015

Based on our unscientific polling (that is to say, our crowdsourcing on a December afternoon), here are a list of 101 words and phrases people said they didn't want to hear any more in 2015:

Some of the words and phrases expose a discomfort as Detroit's identity goes up for grabs:

New Detroit

Gentrification

Hipster

Dan Gilbert

The "D"

Gilbertville

Midtown

Weaving into the urban fabric

Rebirth

Hamtown

Noham

Urban pioneer

Then we had a host of contenders that smacked of the millennial generation:

Epic

Totes

Ridic

Random

Turnt Up

Whatevs

Killing it

Sick

Rock out

Vocal fry

Judgy — or any word on it that is made to be cute and hip by putting a "y" at the end of it, like judge. That's what a 22-year-old writing for Jezebel says. Grown ups can manage to say "judgmental."

A number were related to technology and the Internet:

Selfie

Hashtag (especially ironic hashtags outside of Twitter)

Life-hack (it's not a "hack," you fool; it's a solution to a problem!)

Interstitial

Phablet

A few were simply criticisms of inarticulate talking:

For sure

Like, uhm.....

I know, right?

Some were coinages ranging from old to new that may have simply worn out their welcome:

Baby daddy

Man cave

Lumbersexuals

Rad

Twerk

At least one word was in a class of its own, hinting at ennui with celebrity news:

Kardashian

Some former countercultural words may have been co-opted out of usage:

DIY

Indie

Some words and phrases were cliches of the business world:

Too many cooks

Price point

Reach out

Circle back

Addressing issues

Leverage

Robust

Slippery slope

Innovation

Bespoke

Synergy

Best practices

Creatives

Skill set

Utilize

Optics

Taking it up a level

Other words and phrases suggested perhaps a growing unease with changes in the dining world:

Foodie

Pop-up

Craft

Artisanal

Gastropub

Vegan

Dry bar

Small plates

Shared plates

Infused

Gluten

BAR-B-Q

Curated (for anything other than a collection of art)

Some came to us from the academic world:

Pedagogy

Imaginaries (in their sociological context as "patterned convocations of the social whole")

Impacted or impactful (unless referring to constipation)

Some words or phrases were bits of slang that may have become shopworn:

Hater

Thug

Throwing under the bus

Drinking the Kool-Aid

Über (as a prefix to a word to make it superlative)

Ratchet

Krunk

Some were piece of academese that have been on delete lists for decades:

Impact

Currently

Conversation — if I hear one more talking head say we need to have a "conversation" about this or a "conversation" about that, I'm reaching for a barf bag. That's such a PC buzzword which actually means nothing.

And at least one of the complaints was dead-on; this is not an acceptable phrase ... yet:

Step foot

And one word became an auto-antonym, giving us legitimate reason to toss it out:

Literally (meaning "literally" and "figuratively" and therefore nothing)

Some were thinly disguised complaints about current events:

Race card

Split-second decision

We are living in a post-racial society

Ebola

Adjustable-rate mortgage

Austerity

Water shutoffs

Several of the words or phrases suggested a kind of childish merriment or overstatement, suggesting people are tiring of an insincere and regressive trend in the culture:

Juju

Nom

Yummo

Thrilling

Jaw-dropping

Iconic

Mind-blowing

Amazing

Amazingly

Amazeballs (Really? "Amazeballs"? WTF?)

Awesome (especially when sung)


What words would you like to hear less of in 2015? Sound off in our comments section.