Cliché & Jargon Finder

Clichés, buzzwords and padded phrases have one thing in common: readers stop seeing them. “At the end of the day”, “leverage synergies” and “in order to” fill space without adding meaning, and too many of them make writing sound generic. This tool highlights them so you can decide, phrase by phrase, what to keep.

Three kinds of weak phrase

Clichés are figures of speech that were vivid once and are now worn out: “think outside the box”, “the tip of the iceberg”, “a blessing in disguise”. Jargon and buzzwords are the vocabulary of meetings and marketing: “synergy”, “actionable”, “circle back”, “world-class”. Wordy phrases use several words where one would do: “due to the fact that” for “because”, “at this point in time” for “now”. Each kind has its own colour and can be switched on and off.

Suggestions

Hover a highlighted buzzword or wordy phrase to see a plainer alternative, such as “use” for “utilize” or “about” for “with regard to”. Clichés have no single replacement, because the best fix is usually to say what you actually mean: instead of “a paradigm shift”, describe what changed. The table under the text lists every finding, how often it appears and the suggestion, and downloads as CSV for editors working through a long document.

Reading the counts

The panel title shows how many highlights there are and the rate per 100 words. The rate makes drafts comparable: a 2,000-word report with 10 findings and a 200-word email with 3 have very different densities. Watch it fall as you edit.

When to keep a phrase

Highlights are prompts, not errors. A cliché in a character’s dialogue may be exactly how that person talks. Some terms that look like jargon are the correct technical words in a field, such as “stakeholder” in project management or “ecosystem” in biology. Wordy phrases are sometimes needed for rhythm or emphasis. Change what makes the text clearer and leave the rest.

A worked example

The sample paragraph — “At the end of the day, our new platform is a paradigm shift. We leverage best practices to think outside the box and move the needle…” — produces more than a dozen highlights. Rewritten as “Our new platform cuts reporting time in half. We use proven methods to find new approaches and improve results,” it says more in fewer words and the highlights disappear.

Who uses it

Job seekers polish cover letters and personal statements. Students tighten essays before submission. Marketers and founders strip jargon from websites and pitch decks, and managers make internal emails easier to read. Translators and editors use it to spot phrases that do not translate well.

Private

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A good editing order

Start with wordy phrases, because cutting them is quick and rarely changes meaning. Then replace buzzwords with plain words or concrete facts. Leave clichés for last: each one needs a fresh way of saying what you mean, and some may be worth keeping. Run the text through again after editing and compare the rate per 100 words with the first pass.

Related tools

Check confidence and vagueness with the Hedging Word Checker, strengthen verbs with the Weak Verb Checker, measure difficulty with the Readability Checker, or review job adverts with the Inclusive Language Checker.