Filler Words That Weaken Your Prose (and What to Replace Them With)

Filler words are words that take up space in a sentence without adding meaning. Just, really, very, actually, and began to are common examples, and nearly every first draft carries hundreds of them. One filler word is invisible. Hundreds make prose feel hesitant and slow. This reference lists the filler words editors cut most often and what to replace each one with. It also covers when a filler word is the right choice after all.

What Are Filler Words in Writing?

Filler words are the written version of the um and you know that pad everyday speech. A writer reaches for them out of habit, not because the sentence needs them. Most are short and common, which is why they slip past the person who typed them.

Filler isn't quite the same as a wordy sentence, though the two overlap. A filler word can usually be deleted on its own. She was just about to leave becomes she was about to leave with no loss. A wordy sentence, by contrast, often needs to be rebuilt.

Filler matters because readers feel it in aggregate. A manuscript with a just on every page reads as tentative. A narrator who really feels everything starts to sound breathless. Cutting filler is one of the fastest ways to make prose sound confident.

Filler Words List: The Reference Table

The table below lists the filler words editors flag most often, grouped by family, with a typical example and a revision. Search for each one in your draft and judge every hit in context.

Intensifiers: Very, Really, So, and Extremely

Intensifiers try to make an adjective stronger. In practice, they usually make it weaker, because they signal that the writer didn't find the exact word. Very tired is a placeholder for exhausted. Really big is a placeholder for huge, towering, or cavernous, depending on what you mean.

The fix is a single precise word, or a concrete detail. The house was very old can become the house had stood since before the Civil War. The detail does the intensifying, and the reader gets something to picture.

Intensifiers are adverbs, but they cause a different problem from -ly adverbs of manner such as slowly or angrily. Those get their own treatment in our guide to adverbs in fiction, including when the famous rule against them breaks down.

Hedges and Qualifiers: Quite, Rather, Somewhat, Kind Of

Hedges soften a statement. The plan was somewhat risky commits to less than the plan was risky. Sometimes that softening is accurate. More often it's a reflex, a way of avoiding a firm claim the writer actually believes.

The test is to remove the hedge and ask whether the sentence is now false. If it's still true, cut the hedge. If it now overstates the case, keep the qualifier. Better yet, swap it for a specific measure: the plan had a one-in-three chance of failing.

Hedges that describe a character's state can often be replaced with behavior. He seemed a little nervous tells the reader what to think. He checked his phone twice in a minute shows the same thing and lets the reader conclude it. Our article on show, don't tell explains when that trade is worth making.

Crutch Words: Just, Actually, Basically, Suddenly

Crutch words are the personal tics of a draft. Every writer has a few: just, actually, basically, literally, simply, suddenly, totally. They feel natural in speech, and they creep into narration the same way.

Just is the most common of all. She just wanted to sleep reads the same without it. Suddenly is a special case, because it announces surprise instead of creating it. The lights went out lands harder than suddenly, the lights went out.

Your own crutch words may not appear on any published list. Read one chapter and note any word you see more often than you expected. That word belongs on your personal search list.

Filter Words: Saw, Heard, Felt, Noticed, Realized

Filter words place a character's perception between the reader and the event. She heard the door slam makes the reader watch her hear it. The door slammed puts the reader in the room. In a close point of view, the reader already knows whose senses they're using, so the filter adds nothing.

Common filter words include saw, heard, felt, noticed, watched, realized, wondered, decided, seemed, and knew. Removing them usually makes a scene more immediate. He realized the car was gone becomes the car was gone.

Filters aren't always wrong. Keep one when the act of perceiving is the point, such as a character straining to hear a sound she isn't sure is real. Our guide to point of view in fiction explains why filtering matters most in close perspectives.

Starter Verbs: Began To, Started To, Proceeded To

Starter verbs describe the beginning of an action instead of the action itself. He began to run is slower than he ran, and in most scenes the start and the action happen at the same moment. She started to laugh becomes she laughed.

Keep the starter verb only when the action is interrupted. He started to answer, but the phone rang needs started, because he never finished. The same test applies to tried to, managed to, and proceeded to. Keep them only when the trying or the managing matters to the scene.

Padding Phrases: In Order To, The Fact That, There Was

Padding phrases are multi-word fillers that can usually shrink to one word or disappear. They're most common in nonfiction, academic, and business writing, but fiction has its share. These are the ones editors shorten most often:

• In order to becomes to.
• Due to the fact that becomes because.
• At this point in time becomes now.
• In spite of the fact that becomes although.
• It is important to note that can usually be deleted.
• Each and every becomes each or every.

There was and there were deserve a note of their own. There were three men standing at the gate delays the subject. Three men stood at the gate puts the men first and swaps a weak verb for a real one.

Redundant small words: that, up, down

Some filler is a single small word. That is often optional after verbs like said, knew, and thought. For example, she knew that he was lying reads the same as she knew he was lying. Keep that whenever removing it causes a misreading.

Direction words can pad too. Stood up, sat down, and climbed up repeat the direction the verb already implies. Cutting them isn't mandatory, since sat down is natural English, but trimming a few across a chapter tightens the rhythm.

When Filler Words Belong

Filler words aren't errors. They're habits, and some habits are the right choice. Keep filler in these four situations.

• Dialogue. Real people say just, like, and I mean. A character who never does can sound scripted.
• Narrative voice. A chatty first-person narrator may use actually or basically as part of their personality. Cut the excess, not the voice. Our guide to developing your writing voice covers the difference.
• Rhythm. Sometimes a short word gives a sentence the beat it needs. Read the sentence aloud before and after the cut.
• Honest qualification. In academic writing, a hedge such as may suggest states the true strength of a claim. That's precision, not filler, as our guide to academic voice explains.

The goal isn't zero filler. It's filler you chose rather than filler that crept in.

How to Cut Filler Words: A Five-Step Revision Pass

Cutting filler works best as a dedicated pass with a clear method. These five steps keep the work fast without stripping out your voice.

1. Finish structural revision first. Don't polish words in scenes you may cut. Filler is a line-pass job, as our guide on how to revise a novel explains.
2. Build your personal list. Start with the reference table above, then add your own crutch words from a sample chapter.
3. Search one word at a time. Use the find tool in your word processor and work through every hit for a single word before moving on.
4. Delete, reread, then decide. If the sentence holds, leave the word out. If it feels thin, replace the filler with a precise word or detail.
5. Read the paragraph aloud. Heavy cutting can make prose choppy. Your ear will catch a broken rhythm that the search tool can't.

For the rest of the line-pass routine, see our self-editing checklist. For how concision fits alongside sentence variety and rhythm, see our pillar on prose mechanics.

Frequently Asked Questions

Related Guides

Filler words are one part of concision, which our pillar on prose mechanics covers alongside sentence variety, rhythm, and word choice.

Our guide to adverbs in fiction covers -ly adverbs of manner and the Stephen King rule against them. It explains which ones to cut and which to keep.

For monotony that survives a filler pass, our article on sentence variety shows how editors diagnose flat rhythm.

For the full revision sequence, start with our editor's field guide to writing craft for authors.

Reviewed by the Editor World editorial team under the direction of Patti Fisher, PhD, founder. Editor World has provided 100% human editing by native English editors since 2010. About Editor World