A lot of people would answer this by picking something like literally (because it’s used figuratively), epic (because not every sandwich is Homer’s Odyssey), or like (because, like, you know).
But I’m going in a different direction.
My answer? TikTok.
Not because the app itself is a bad word, but because of its outsized impact on the way people — especially young people — talk. It’s not just slang; it’s the redefinition of perfectly good words into something entirely wrong… and then spreading those wrong definitions to millions of people in record time.
Case in point: last year, a TikTok trend convinced students that the word demur meant “to be mindful.” Never mind that the actual definition is “to raise doubts or show reluctance.” Because TikTok said it, suddenly half the school was using it as if they’d discovered a shiny new synonym for thoughtful.
This is what I mean when I say the word I don’t like is TikTok — it’s a linguistic accelerant. Misuses that used to take years to creep into the mainstream can now happen in hours. And once it’s gone viral, it’s harder to undo than teaching people that “irregardless” isn’t a real word (even though dictionaries have now given up and put it in).
Language changes over time — that’s normal. But it used to happen through slow cultural evolution, not because a 15-second video got 3 million likes.
So yes, the word I could do without is TikTok. And ironically, it’s a word that might end up in the dictionary one day meaning: The rapid spread of a wrong idea through social media. Which, of course, TikTok will happily take credit for.
Copyright © 2025 Doug DeBolt
