1. Invasive
• a) Tending to spread very quickly and undesirably or harmfully.
Usage: Some mangroves are invasive, but many are vital coastline protectors.
• b) Tending to intrude on a person’s thoughts or privacy.
Usage: He worries about Amazon’s invasive data collection, the influence exercised by its algorithms, the heat generated by its enormous computer centres and the exploitation of its workers.
2. Cynicism
• Cynicism is an attitude characterized by a general distrust of others’ motives.
• A cynic may have a general lack of faith or hope in the human species or people motivated by ambition, desire, greed, gratification, materialism, goals, and opinions that a cynic perceives as vain, unobtainable, or ultimately meaningless and therefore deserving of ridicule or admonishment.
Usage: The saddest consequence of inept, indifferent government isn’t even the money it wastes, it’s the cynicism it fosters.
3. Astroturfing
• Astroturfing is the practice of masking the sponsors of a message or organization (e.g., political, advertising, religious or public relations) to make it appear as though it originates from and is supported by grassroots participants. It is a practice intended to give the statements or organizations credibility by withholding information about the source’s financial connection.
• Also, Astroturfing is the act of paying off individuals to act like an unbiased party or customers while promoting a brand or site in public forums such as social media.
Usage: What he is talking about is not really astroturfing, but rather the granting of some individuals a big megaphone.
4. Grandfather Clause
• It is a clause which allows a piece of legislation not to apply to something old or incumbent.
Usage: Those homeowners would automatically lose the rate protection provided by the program’s grandfather clause.
5. Poison Pill
• Poison Pill is a provision in an act or bill which defeats or undermines its initial purpose or makes it politically unacceptable.
Usage: The company said it would jettison a provision of the so-called poison pill it adopted last summer that limited Mr. Schnatter’s communications with shareholders.
6. Knee-jerk
• Of a response automatic and unthinking.
Usage: Rarely, if ever, are knee jerk decisions helpful – particularly if based on a single video or social media post.
7. Travail
• Engage in painful or laborious effort.
Usage: Creation may travail in pain but it cannot escape its destiny.
8. Locus standi
• The right or capacity to bring an action or to appear in a court.
Usage: A foreign government which has not been recognized by the UK government has no locus standi in the English courts.
9. Analysis Paralysis
• Analysis Paralysis describes an individual or group process when overanalysing or overthinking a situation can cause forward motion or decision-making to become “paralyzed”, meaning that no solution or course of action is decided upon.
Usage: If you are stuck on a team suffering from analysis paralysis, I bet you are as frustrated as I was.
10. Chilling effect
• In a legal context, a chilling effect is the inhibition or discouragement of the legitimate exercise of natural and legal rights by the threat of legal sanction.
The right that is most often described as being suppressed by a chilling effect is the constitutional right to free speech.
Usage: She said if the decision were to stand, it would have a chilling effect on consumers and Internet service providers.
