• Earlier this week, Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie continued its decades-long tradition of banishing a list of popular words from the previous year.

• LSSU says it received more than 2,000 suggestions from 20 different countries.

• Landing at the top of the list this year is ‘hack.’

SAULTE STE. MARIE, Mich. (WJMN) – Certain words or phrases make their way into the modern vernacular. When used with high frequency, as iconic as some of the lingo may be, it can make your vocabulary seem a bit limited.

Regardless of how obsessed you are with today’s language, at the end of the day, one Michigan university would like you to stop using the cringe-worthy words and phrases on its latest annual list.

Earlier this week, Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie continued its decades-long tradition of banishing a list of popular words from the previous year.

To determine the words to be cut, nominations pour in. For the newest list, LSSU says it received more than 2,000 suggestions from 20 different countries. That is at least 500 more submissions than the previous year.

School officials previously explained the process to Nexstar’s WJMN. Anyone can submit a word or term they’d like to see banned. Then, the school’s English department decides which words will be banished.

Since 1976, more than 1,000 everyday terms have been banished – some more than once.

Last year, ‘GOAT’ topped the list. Before that, it was ‘Wait, what?’ To no real surprise, ‘COVID-19’ was banished in 2021. Kicking off 2020, ‘jelly’ was the top banished word — not the fruit spread, but the abbreviation of ‘jealous.’

Landing at the top of the list this year is ‘hack,’ which has become common-place to describe easy money-making methods (like side hustles, another word on the list this year), ways to order off ‘secret’ fast food menus, and, unfortunately, scammers. LSSU warns overusing hack in 2024 “could make it lose its magic.”

Here is LSSU’s full list of banished words for 2024. If you have to look up what any of them mean, you likely haven’t been using them too much.

• Hack
• Impact
• At the end of the day
• Rizz
• Slay
• Iconic
• Cringe-worthy
• Obsessed
• Side hustle
• Wait for it

The list of words and phrases, along with their explanations for banishment are available here.

‘At the end of the day’ was previously banished in 2022, as was ‘iconic’ in 2009.

Not everyone hates these words, though. Oxford University Press declared ‘rizz’ as its word of the year for 2023.

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