weasel wording
Deliberately ambiguous phrasing
Weasel wording is language that sounds meaningful but hedges, qualifies, or leaves escape routes.
The term evokes a weasel slipping through tight spaces—these words let speakers avoid commitment while appearing to say something definite.
Common techniques include passive voice that hides actors, vague attributions like some say or experts believe, and qualifiers that drain claims of substance: up to 50% off, may help reduce.
Politicians and advertisers rely on weasel wording to imply without promising.
- euphemismMild substitute for bluntness
- understatementIntentional diminishment for effect
- doublespeakDeliberately misleading language
- hyperboleRhetorical extreme exaggeration
- circumlocutionIndirect, wordy expression
equivocation · hedging · mealy-mouthed · wiggle room · non-denial denial · obfuscation · innuendo · ambiguity · insinuation · read between the lines · vagueness · spin · tautology · credibility · waffling · loaded language · plausible deniability · trustworthiness
weasel wordingstraight talk
Honest, direct communication
bluntness · directness · candor · forthrightness · clarity
weasel wordingcandor
Unguarded truthfulness
frankness · honesty · truthfulness · sincerity · transparency
weasel, wording, word, words, worded, wordless, wordiness, wordy