Ten categories
Filler, qualifiers and hedges, weasel words, intensifiers, nominalizations, wordy phrases, redundancies, weak verbs, jargon, business clichés.
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666 words and phrases that weaken writing, each with a replacement and a real example
A spreadsheet, not a blog list. Every row has the phrase, its category, what to do (cut, replace or rewrite), the replacement, a severity, a before-and-after sentence, and a note on when to keep it. Plus a tab formatted for Find and Replace in Word and Google Docs.
XLSX3 tabs666 rows
- 666
- phrases in 10 categories
- 666
- before-and-after sentences, one per row
- 343
- keep-it-when notes, so you do not over-cut
What is inside
Built for the work, not the feed.
Editors, writers, students, marketers and non-native writers who want to run a list against a draft instead of hoping to notice the fillers.
Cut, replace or rewrite
Each phrase has an action. Cut means delete it. Replace gives the word. Rewrite tells you how to restructure ("name the actor", "give the number and the source").
A real sentence pair on every row
Not "use fewer words". An actual before and after, written at grade 6 to 8, across work, school, product, health and everyday subjects.
Keep it when
Blanket deletion lists cause bad edits. 343 rows say when the phrase is legitimately fine: keep "significantly" when you report a statistical test.
The Find and Replace tab
Whole-word patterns for Word and regex for Google Docs and editors. Work through hits one by one, never Replace All.
Filter, sort, search
Header filters for category, action and severity. Sort by severity to see the worst first. Add your own team's phrases in the same columns.
Look inside
These are the actual pages you get.
Screenshots are taken from the file itself, not a mock-up. What you see here is what lands in your inbox.
How to use it
Three steps, then it is yours.
- 1Open the list and filter to one category, or sort by severity.
- 2Search any phrase you are unsure about (Ctrl+F). Read the keep-it-when column.
- 3Use the Find and Replace tab with Find Next, one hit at a time.
Questions
Before you download
01Is 666 phrases too many to be useful?
You will never read it top to bottom. It is a lookup and a filter: one category at a time, or one phrase you are unsure about. The severity column gets you to the 498 that almost always go.
02Does Orwellix do this automatically?
The editor highlights fillers, qualifiers, adverbs and passive voice as you write, and the AI agent can cut or replace them in one pass while showing every change. The list is for when you are editing elsewhere, or want to know why.
03Can I add my own rows?
Yes. Keep the same columns and the filters and counts keep working. It opens in Excel, Google Sheets and LibreOffice.
Get the file
666 phrases that weaken writing, with replacements
Enter your name and email and it arrives in a minute. One email per new resource after that, and you can leave any time.
Prefer to skip the download? Start Orwellix free and do the editing inside the document instead.
