crutch word
crutch word noun: a word that becomes a filler in conversation, or is used for verbal emphasis, without adding any meaning to an utterance.
Noun
crutch word (plural crutch words)
- A word that becomes a filler in conversation, or is used for verbal emphasis, without adding any meaning to an utterance.
- Of course, we didn't list all the crutch words, because it appears we're living in a crutch word epidemic.2012 Jen Doll, ""A Literal Epidemic of Crutch Words," The Atlantic, 13 September 2012.
- 2016 O'Brian Gunn, ""Crutch Words that Hobble Your Writing," BKA Content, 29 December 2016.
A crutch word is essentially a placeholder, something we say or sometimes even write when we can’t think of the right word to accurately describe what we want to convey.
Forms of crutch word
| plural | crutch words |
|---|---|
| alternative form | crutch-word |
| alternative form | crutchword |
Origin of crutch word
From crutch + word.
Questions about crutch word
- What does crutch word mean?
- Crutch word means a word that becomes a filler in conversation, or is used for verbal emphasis, without adding any meaning to an utterance.
- What part of speech is crutch word?
- Crutch word is a noun.
- What is the plural of crutch word?
- The plural of crutch word is crutch words.
Words near crutch word in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: crutch word (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “crutch word.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/crutch_word. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.