While editing a stack of documents a few months back, I ran across the phrase “top of mind.”

“Ugh, awkward,” I thought, and changed it. But then it popped up again a few docs later from a different writer, and then again while researching. Amid my growing suspicions, I managed to Google it with slightly shaky hands.

To my horror, I found that “top of mind” was a thing — an actual accepted phrase used in business every day by who knows how many people, and this despite its ungainly cadence and oh-so-wrongness. And top of mind is far from the only culprit. We also have nuggets like “vertical market” and leverage used as a verb in the wrong way. Also, nuggets.

Companies now have robust offerings instead of choices and they leverage solutions instead of selling stuff. And business jargon itself is accepted as a best practice, which adds a nice kicky splash of surrealism to the whole mess.

These things frustrate me as an editor, because I have trouble deciphering actual bad language from acceptable jargon. They discourage me as a writer, because concise, clear language better communicates the message to the target reader, yet some clients still expect jargon to be used. And as a lover of language, frankly, they offend me a little.

The truth is, in any smallish community — like the business world, in this case — of course some insider language springs up. Twitter’s hashtags are the #perfectexample of this, and so is texting shorthand. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, and definitely not an unusual thing. At least in moderation.

Language, by definition, is the means by which we share ideas with each other. We sort out problems and find answers by communicating together. Yet, when one party is using lingo that’s indecipherable to the other, actual communication doesn’t happen. Common ground can’t be reached if you’re talking and the other person is dialoguing. Neither party is sure if the message has been understood. We’re all lost in translation limbo.

So the next time you’re tempted to ask someone if they have the bandwidth to kick around a synergistic, innovative, value-adding proposition, please don’t pretend you know what they’re talking about. And definitely don’t agree if you don’t understand what’s being asked of you. Break the cycle. If we all stand strong, then together we can leverage a robust, scalable solution that disrupts the buzzwords pain point once and for all.

Maarit Miller is a writing junkie who will always love the Oxford comma.