General Writing Clichés
These phrases appear across all writing contexts and have become so familiar they carry almost no meaning:
- At the end of the day
- When all is said and done
- It goes without saying
- In this day and age
- At this point in time
- The bottom line is
- It is what it is
- Light at the end of the tunnel
- In the final analysis
- When push comes to shove
- Leave no stone unturned
- Go the extra mile
- Hit the ground running
- Think outside the box
- Bite the bullet
Business and Marketing Clichés
Business writing is especially vulnerable to cliché. These phrases have been used so frequently in corporate communications that they've been drained of meaning:
- Synergy / synergistic
- Leverage (used as a verb)
- Circle back / loop back
- Touch base
- Move the needle
- Low-hanging fruit
- Game-changer / game-changing
- Deep dive
- Value-add / value-added
- Bandwidth (used to mean capacity or time)
- Scalable solution
- Best-in-class
- Thought leader / thought leadership
- Disruptive innovation
- Boil the ocean
Academic Writing Clichés
Academic writers often reach for these phrases when constructing arguments, but they weaken rather than strengthen formal writing:
- It is widely accepted that
- It goes without saying that
- It could be argued that
- Needless to say
- This is a complex issue
- There are many factors to consider
- Throughout history
- Since the dawn of time
- In today's society
- Many scholars agree
How to Use This List
Run your draft through WordCountNow's Cliche Finder to automatically flag these phrases in your text. For each flagged cliché, ask: what exactly am I trying to say? Then express that specific meaning in plain language. The goal is precision, not novelty — a specific, concrete phrase will always outperform a familiar but hollow one.