If you’re like Mansfield University’s Dennis Miller, there are certain words and phrases that drive you crazy. After hearing a speaker use one of those words about 20 times, he imagined her stepping away from the podium and singing like Olivia Newton John, “Granular, granular, let’s get granular…”

“Words become buzzwords and phrases become catch phrases for several reasons,” writes Miller, PR director at Mansfield and a popular blogger and novelist. “Some are catchy and fun to say. Many provide verbal shortcuts.”

But many become overused, misused and painfully abused. Like “literally.” “People literally use this word too much,” writes Miler. “‘Literally’ is the new ‘ironically’ which is used correctly maybe 2 percent of the time. Really.”

Or how about “outside the box”? “People who use this phrase are usually still in the box and will remain there,” he says. “They should be sealed in and delivered to the Museum of Terminally Boxed-in People.”

More recently, he wrote about “silos.” “I’ve just starting hearing this in office conversation and I’ve seen it a few times in writing. It’s one of those words that creates an appropriate image. (See yourself as dried corn nestled in your own comfortable silo not wanting to communicate with the corn in the other silos.) I hear it on campus as in ‘departments are silos,’ not caring about other departments. It’s going to wear itself out fast because it’s an easy concept for lazy speakers.”

And that’s where some of these words and phrases become more than just daily irritations. They’re often seen as substitutes for more precise thinking and expression. As Miller points out, “Some of the most uncreative administrators and executives I know litter their conversations with buzzwords and catch phrases to the point where conversations become meaningless.”

There are other words and phrases that Miller would like to see “dismembered letter-by-letter.” Check them out:

Words & Phrases That Should Be Buried

More Words & Phrases I’d Like to See Dead

At the end of the day, what words and phrases drive you crazy?
Let us know.