Corporate jargon, translated

600 corporate jargon phrases from meetings, inboxes, job ads and LinkedIn, and what each one means in plain English.

Circle back.

talk later, or never

Topic

Return to a topic later, usually with no date attached.

The corporate jargon dictionary

Corporate jargon is the set of words offices use in place of plain ones: bandwidth for time, leverage for use, ideate for think, circle back for later. Corporate speak and business jargon mean the same thing.

UK workers were asked to explain 24 common office phrases without looking them up. The average worker could explain 7. Out of 600 people, three got all 24.

Each letter below opens a page with every term filed under it. Under the letters, the terms that have a full page of their own are grouped by topic.

Meetings

action items: tasks; The tasks a meeting hands out, each with a name next to it.; action items meaning
cadence: how often; How often something repeats: a meeting, a report, a release.; cadence meaning in business

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circle back: talk later, or never; Return to a topic later, usually with no date attached.; circle back meaning
level set: agree on the facts; Make sure everyone starts from the same facts before the discussion.; level set meaning
QBR: quarterly review; Quarterly business review: a meeting about the last three months' numbers.; qbr meaning in business
touch base: check in; A short check-in to see where something stands.; touch base meaning

Time and email

all the best: good luck, bye; A warm sign-off that wishes the reader well, often on a last email.; all the best meaning
as per: according to; According to: points back at a rule, a request or an earlier email.; as per meaning

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best regards: kind goodbye; A polite email sign-off, a notch warmer than plain regards.; best regards meaning
BLUF: main point first; Bottom line up front: the conclusion or the ask goes in the first line.; bluf meaning
CC: copied in; Carbon copy: someone added to an email to read it, not to act.; cc meaning
cheers: thanks, bye; A casual sign-off that means thanks, goodbye, or both.; cheers meaning in email
COB: when the office closes; Close of business: the end of the working day.; cob meaning in business
EOD: by the end of today; End of day: the end of the working day, in someone's time zone.; eod meaning
EOW: by Friday; End of week: by the end of the working week, usually Friday.; eow meaning in business
EOY: by year end; End of year: the last working days of December, or of the fiscal year.; eoy meaning
FW: passed on; Forwarded: the subject line mark of an email sent on to someone new.; fw meaning in email
FWD: passed on; Forwarded, as some mail apps write it in the subject line.; fwd meaning in email
FYA: for your action; For your action or attention; on a joke email, for your amusement.; fya meaning
keep me posted: tell me what happens; Send me updates as things change, so I don't have to ask.; keep me posted meaning
noted: I read it; Received and understood, with no promise to do anything about it.; noted meaning
NRN: no reply needed; No reply needed: read it, then you can leave it alone.; nrn meaning
OOO: away; Out of office, as announced by the auto-reply, often the most honest email sent.; ooo meaning
per my last email: read what I sent; You did not read my last email, which answered this.; per my last email meaning
please advise: tell me what to do; Tell me what to do, and soon.; please advise meaning
pls: please; Please, cut short in a chat or an email, usually before a request.; pls meaning
regards: goodbye, politely; A short, neutral email sign-off that can read warm or cold.; regards meaning
revert: reply; In Indian English, reply to a message; elsewhere it means go back.; revert meaning
sincerely: formal goodbye; The formal letter sign-off, for cover letters, official letters and complaints.; sincerely meaning
V/R: very respectfully; Very respectfully: the US military email sign-off written to someone senior.; v/r meaning
warm regards: friendly goodbye; A friendlier sign-off, for someone you have met or get along with.; warm regards meaning
WFH: working from home; Working from home, or a day spent doing it.; wfh meaning
WIP: not finished; Work in progress: started, not done, and not ready to be judged.; wip meaning

Strategy

ad hoc: as needed; Set up for one purpose when the need arises, without a plan.; ad hoc meaning in business
blue-sky thinking: ideas with no limits; Ideas with no budget, deadline or reality check yet.; blue sky thinking meaning

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boil the ocean: aim too high; Try to do everything at once, so nothing gets finished.; boil the ocean meaning
cross-functional: across teams; Involving people from several departments, such as product, sales and legal.; cross functional meaning
dogfooding: using our own product; Staff using the company's own product before customers do.; dogfooding meaning
low-hanging fruit: easy wins; The easiest tasks with a visible payoff, done first.; low hanging fruit meaning
moat: lasting advantage; An advantage rivals cannot easily copy, like the moat around a castle.; moat meaning in business
move the needle: make a difference; Make a change big enough to show up in the numbers.; move the needle meaning
on the back burner: postponed for now; Postponed, because something else matters more right now.; back burner meaning
operationalize: put into practice; Make a plan part of routine work; in research, make an idea measurable.; operationalize meaning
table stakes: the bare minimum; The minimum you need to be considered at all.; table stakes meaning
think outside the box: try something new; Try an unusual idea.; think outside the box meaning
tiger team: special squad; A small group of experts pulled together to fix one urgent problem.; tiger team meaning

People and HR

garden leave: paid to stay away; Notice spent at home on full pay, kept away from work and from rivals.; garden leave meaning
golden handcuffs: pay that keeps you; Pay or perks that cost too much to walk away from, such as unvested stock.; golden handcuffs meaning

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hit the ground running: start fast; Start at full speed, with little or no training.; hit the ground running meaning
HRBP: your team's HR person; HR business partner: the HR person assigned to a team or department.; hrbp meaning
involuntary termination: fired or laid off; Losing your job because the employer ended it; you didn't choose to go.; involuntary termination meaning
job hugging: staying out of fear; Clinging to your current job because the job market looks worse.; job hugging meaning
managing up: handling your boss; Working on your relationship with your own manager so work goes well.; managing up meaning
micromanagement: watching every step; A manager checking and steering every small step of your work.; micromanaging definition
notice period: time before you go; The time between resigning, or being told to go, and your last day.; notice period meaning
PIP: written warning; Performance improvement plan: written targets, a deadline and regular check-ins.; pip meaning
PTO: time off; Paid time off: days away that you are still paid for.; pto meaning
quiet quitting: doing the job; Doing the job as written and nothing more, named as if it were quitting.; quiet quitting meaning
RIF: layoffs; Reduction in force: job cuts, as the paperwork words them.; rif meaning
subject matter expert: the one who knows; The one person who understands the thing. Shortened to SME.; subject matter expert meaning
upskilling: learning new skills; Training staff in new skills for the job they already have.; upskilling meaning

humblebrag: a boast in disguise; A boast disguised as a complaint or as modesty.; humblebrag meaning

Red flags

competitive salary: we won't say; The salary is not in the ad.; competitive salary meaning
team player: does as told; Works well with others; also said to someone asked to do extra unpaid.; team player meaning

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unlimited PTO: no set leave; No fixed vacation allowance, so nobody knows how much is normal.; unlimited pto meaning
we're a family here: we expect loyalty; Expect loyalty and unpaid extra effort. Layoffs still apply.; we're a family here
work hard, play hard: long hours, then drinks; Long hours, then drinks you are expected to attend.; work hard play hard meaning

Office life

brown-noser: flatters the boss; Someone who flatters the boss to get ahead.; brown noser meaning
coffee badging: showing up briefly; Badging into the office to be counted, then leaving after a coffee.; coffee badging

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corporate America: big business; Big US companies and the way of working they share.; corporate america meaning
cubicle: desk in a box; A desk walled in by low partitions, one of many in a row.; cubicle meaning
drink the Kool-Aid: believe it blindly; Accept a company's message or plan without question.; drink the kool aid meaning
eat the frog: worst task first; Do the task you dread most first thing in the day.; eat the frog meaning
flex time: choose your hours; Choosing your own start and finish times, usually around set core hours.; flex time meaning
hot desking: no desk of your own; No assigned desks: you sit wherever is free that day, if anywhere is.; hot desking meaning
hybrid work: some office days; A week split between the office and home.; hybrid work meaning
return to office: back to the office; A policy ordering staff into the office on set days, often to join video calls.; rto meaning in work
Sunday scaries: dread before Monday; The dread that settles in on Sunday afternoon about the work week.; sunday scaries meaning
WFO: work from office; Work from office: a day at your desk instead of at home.; wfo meaning
work wife: closest coworker; The close, platonic work friend you rely on most.; work wife meaning

Corporate jargon tools

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Bullshit generator
Executive speak with subtitles

Corporate jargon games and memes

These games turn corporate jargon into something you can play at work.

Buzzword bingo deals everyone on a call a different card.
Corporate jargon bingo prints up to eight cards for one meeting room.
The corporate jargon quiz asks everyone the same five terms a day.
Work memes has you caption an office photo.

Corporate jargon by country and generation

Circle back is the phrase office workers complain about most. Three separate counts of complaints put it at the top.

Synergy, touch base and bandwidth made all three counts as well. They’re also among the corporate buzzwords people look up most.

Corporate jargon in Australia

Ducks in a row is the phrase that annoys Australian office workers most.

In Australia	Share
Annoyed by ducks in a row, the most of 42 phrases	17%
Annoyed by reinvent the wheel	15.7%
Annoyed by put a pin in it	15.1%
Annoyed by in the loop, the fewest	5.3%
Tech workers who use jargon, most often bandwidth	85%
Real estate workers who use jargon, the lowest share	43%

Corporate jargon in the UK

In the UK, close of play is the end of the day, and a thought shower is a brainstorm.

Outside the US, to table a point puts it on the agenda. In the US it usually means taking the point off the agenda.

In the UK, hit the ground running is the phrase workers use most, at 16%. Second place is a tie at 14%, between touch base and get the ball rolling.

Gen Z and corporate jargon

In a UK test of 24 common office phrases, Gen Z understood 22.1% of them on average, against 31.7% for Gen X. The least understood was ideate, at 4.3%.

Ideate means think. When Gen Z workers put phrases in their own words, circle back becomes come back and synergy becomes teamwork.

Where corporate jargon comes from and why it spreads

Where corporate jargon came from

Corporate jargon borrows from whatever business is busy with at the time, from factory floors to TikTok.

When	The words
Early in the 20th century, as factories scaled up	Production, precision and accuracy
1993, in Warren Buffett’s shareholder letter	An economic moat around a business
The 2008 crash	Synthetic CDOs and tranches of debt products, which hid how big the risks were
2016, the earliest business use found so far	Table stakes, borrowed from poker
After the pandemic, from TikTok	Quiet quitting and coffee badging

Layoffs picked up new names along the way, like downsizing, restructuring and re-engineering.

Why companies use corporate speak

The top reason people give for using jargon is that it saves time. People lower in status use more of it when they’re being evaluated, to sound competent.

Australians who use jargon and say	Share
It saves time	52%
They picked it up without noticing	48%
It helps them fit in	36%

Job ad jargon that means the opposite

In job ads, some phrases mean the opposite of what they say.

A flexible schedule flexes for the company. Shifts move at short notice, and start times only ever flex earlier.
“We don’t believe in job titles” means a bit of every job ends up on your desk.
Hybrid can mean four days a week in the office.
“Other duties as needed” can turn out to be most of the job.

Next to these, “we’re a family here” is almost honest. Families do expect favors, and you do feel bad about leaving one.

What it costs

In an office full of jargon, fewer people speak up, and a jargon memo gets understood less than a plain one.

What jargon costs	Figure
People less likely to start a conversation with a colleague	29%
People less likely to speak up in meetings	25%
A plain memo’s comprehension score in a small test	8 out of 10
The jargon version’s score	5
Professionals in eight countries who would drop jargon	Nearly half

The new words

Most new office words since 2024 describe people who stay in a job they’ve stopped enjoying, like job hugging, quiet cracking and the great detachment. The rest are about AI.

Word list	AI word
Collins Word of the Year 2025	Vibe coding
Dictionary.com shortlist	Agentic
Macquarie Dictionary’s pick	AI slop, which becomes workslop in a colleague’s inbox

Collins also shortlisted taskmasking, which means faking being busy at the office.

How to avoid corporate jargon

Use the plain words the jargon stands for: time for bandwidth, layoffs for rightsizing. Keep the shorthand everyone on the team knows, like EOD, OOO, FW and WIP.

When the plain words come out too blunt, our phrasebook shows how to professionally say each of 200 blunt thoughts.

Questions about corporate jargon

What are the top 100 corporate jargons?

This dictionary's 600 terms cover them, though nobody has ranked an official top 100. They take in the phrases office surveys have named since 2024 and the acronyms people look up most, such as WFH and EOW. They also cover the lines job ads keep repeating and new words like workslop.

What is corporate jargon?

Office language that swaps a plain word for a longer or vaguer one, such as ideate for think or deliverables for work. Inside one team it can be handy shorthand. It stops helping once new staff or outsiders can't follow it.

What is some good corporate lingo?

EOD, OOO, FW and WIP are good corporate lingo, because the whole team already knows them. They save words and hide nothing. Lingo turns bad when it swaps a plain word for no reason, like bandwidth for time.

What are some common jargons used in the workplace?

EOD, OOO, WFH and ASAP are the most common, followed by meeting phrases like touch base, action items and on my radar. EOD and ASAP set deadlines, and OOO and WFH say where you are. The meeting phrases mostly put a decision off.

What is corporate speak called?

It's usually called corporate jargon. It also goes by business jargon, corporate lingo and management speak. The kind that hides bad news, such as rightsizing for job cuts, is called doublespeak.

What are some common corporate jargons used in Australia?

Touch base is the most used, by 48.4% of Australian office workers, even though one in 10 dislike it. Next come get the ball rolling at 47.8% and think outside the box at 45.3%.

Sources

The 30 sources behind this page