Weasel words are ambiguous words, phrases, or sentences used to give the impression of importance without committing to a specific statement or data set. They occur in politics, advertising, and corporate affairs and can be ambiguous due to context dependency. Weasel words can be single words, sentences, or organizational setups and can be oxymorons, euphemisms, or non sequiturs. The passive voice also hides weasel words.
A weasel word is a word, phrase, or sentence or organizational setting that contains ambiguity and which therefore does not reflect the whole truth. People use these words when they want to give the impression that what they’re saying matters, but don’t want to commit to a specific statement or data set. The term comes from the way weasels eat their eggs, sucking up the matter and leaving only a shell. Weasel words can occur in any writing or speech, but are standard in areas such as politics, advertising, and corporate affairs.
Ambiguity is a hallmark of weasel words. One problem with weasel words then is that their meaning is context dependent, which depends on the surrounding culture. Without experience, a person may miss one or more possible interpretations.
As a single word, a weasel word works as a modifier. Examples are words like probably, virtually, most, some, or often. These words create a sense of how many or when, but aren’t specific in numbers, statistics, or dates. The lack of specificity causes trained individuals such as editors to regard weasel word inclusions as unnecessary and as evidence of a lack of sufficient effort or research.
Weasel words as sentences can be oxymorons or euphemisms. For example, a person might say “virtually universal.” Universal implies that everyone has or does something, but virtually means nearly or almost, thus nullifying the meaning of universal. Similarly, a company could cushion the blow from layoffs by calling the release of workers “exploiting new opportunities” or “streamlining operations.” Non sequitur or irrelevant statements are also buzzwords, such as a company claiming to be “the leader in shoes” without providing information that would allow comparisons with the company’s competitors.
A sentence can also be a weasel word. An example of this is “This event is beyond words”. This phrase could mean that the person is pleased or impressed with the event, or it could mean that the person is affected by the event’s lack of fun, quality, or professionalism. People also create weasel word sentences using questions to make implications, such as saying, “Do we want to continue under someone with this record?” This question implies that the leader has done a poor job, but doesn’t come out and say anything negative outright, and it doesn’t provide any specific data about what is within the record that could be offensive or harmful.
The passive voice also hides weasel words. If a person says “It is said…”, for example, the reader or listener has no way of knowing who said what follows. Thus, the writer or speaker avoids specificity about the origin of what he communicates, even if he depends on the authority of that origin.
Organizational setup weasel words occur in documents or tools such as surveys. When a person looks at individual parts of these documents, there is no problem. When put together, however, one part can imply how a person should interpret the next section.
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