a word that is used by someone regularly (2025)

I am looking for a term that describes a word that is used by someone regularly (often subconsciously). It can serve various functions from giving the speaker time to think about what to say next, to stressing a point the speaker is trying to make.

An example of this is 'you know':

I felt really weird that day, you know, sort of sad, but not quite.

I've encountered this term before, but I can't remember it now! Help!

The word ''expletive'' comes to mind but it only describes words that contribute nothing to the meaning (ie. only used to fill in syntactic gaps). Not quite what I am looking for.

jamesjiao said:

I am looking for a term that describes a word that is used by someone regularly (often subconsciously). It can serve various functions from giving the speaker time to think about what to say next, to stressing a point the speaker is trying to make.

An example of this is 'you know':

I felt really weird that day, you know, sort of sad, but not quite.

I've encountered this term before, but I can't remember it now! Help!

The word ''expletive'' comes to mind but it only describes words that contribute nothing to the meaning (ie. only used to fill in syntactic gaps). Not quite what I am looking for.

Click to expand...

The linguistic term for filler which contributes something (if not a great deal) to the meaning is discourse particle.

mplsray said:

The linguistic term for filler which contributes something (if not a great deal) to the meaning is discourse particle.

Click to expand...

I knew someone was going to come along and impress me... thanks for this, and the bonus link. The Wiki article even includes my personal annoyance -- actually, which I think of as the new duh. I tend to count the number of actually as on-the-scene TV journalists speak. I'm always amazed.

Hi.
Is it also be able to be referred as the followings?
pet phrase
favorite phrase
habit of saying
trademark phrase

Are these applied for a more long phrase, such as "to be honest with you," or "to say the truth," etc.?

I'd call them fillers or (if they were particularly annoying) verbal tics. I've never heard of discourse particles, so I suppose it depends on whether you want a term that's understandable to all ... or only to the kind of people who understand the

specialized terminology of linguistics.

'Window of opportunity' is his pet/favourite phrase ~ he uses it all the time even when it's not appropriate.
'Window of opportunity' is his trademark phrase ~ he's famous for it throughout the company.
He has a habit of saying 'do you see?' at the end of every sentence, whether it's a question or not.

ewie said:

I'd call them fillers or (if they were particularly annoying) verbal tics. I've never heard of discourse particles, so I suppose it depends on whether you want a term that's understandable to all ... or only to the kind of people who understand the

jargon

specialized terminology of linguistics.

'Window of opportunity' is his pet/favourite phrase ~ he uses it all the time even when it's not appropriate.
'Window of opportunity' is his trademark phrase ~ he's famous for it throughout the company.
He has a habit of saying 'do you see?' at the end of every sentence, whether it's a question or not.

Click to expand...

Hi.
Thank you, ewie, to say the truth, I, now understand that "to say the truth" is called a filler, and to say the truth, it is also called a discourse particle among people of that field, and to say the truth, it is different from trademark phrases nor pet phrases, which, to say the truth, I thought to be alternatives.
But in the future, when I become the president and famous enough throughout the world, "to say the truth" will become my trademark phrase, like "Change has come," but to say the truth, it will never happen, because such a poor speaker who uses too much fillers will never become the president.

Copyright said:

To tell you the truth, we usually say, "to tell you the truth." If you're going to fill, use the familiar filler.

Click to expand...

Thank you, Copyright, for your to-tell-you-the-truth-very-helpful advice. To tell you the truth, I misunderstood the filler.
The possibility of I-will-be-the-president is less likely.

Wishfull said:

a poor speaker who uses too

much

many fillers will never become the president.

Click to expand...

Oh you're absolutely right there, WF, to be sure. No nation would ever elect a president who wasn't a wonderfully gifted public speaker in full control of his linguistic faculties at all times

ewie said:

Oh you're absolutely right there, WF, to be sure. No nation would ever elect a president who wasn't a wonderfully gifted public speaker in full control of his linguistic faculties at all times

Click to expand...

If the definition of "a filler" is a word that is used by someone regularly,
my filler in this forum would be "thank you". (Of course I know it is misinterpretation of the definition.)
Thank you again, ewie, for the correction. "Many" is right because "filler" is a countable noun.

I call such a habit a like, well, you know, a "crutch," if you know what I mean.

ewie said:

Oh you're absolutely right there, WF, to be sure. No nation would ever elect a president who wasn't a wonderfully gifted public speaker in full control of his linguistic faculties at all times

Click to expand...

C'mon Ewie, don't beat around the bush.

bluegiraffe said:

Would you also call one of these words a discourse particle if it was used at the end of a sentence? An ex-colleague had the (really annoying) habit of saying "like" at the end of every sentence, like. Is this, like, a discourse particle, like?

Click to expand...

From the Wikipedia article Sentence-final particle:

English also has some words that act somewhat like sentence final particles, but primarily only in colloquial speech. These are generally discourse particles, rather than modal particles. For example:

"man" in "Don't do it, man."
"right" in "The black one, right?"
"you know" in "That's what it was like back then, you know?"

Click to expand...