doublespeak

/ˈdəbəlˌspiːk/

doublespeak means any language deliberately constructed to disguise or distort its actual meaning, often by employing euphemism or ambiguity. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.

doublespeak is pronounced /ˈdəbəlˌspiːk/.

Why “doublespeak” is a great word

Language deliberately constructed to disguise or distort its actual meaning, often by employing euphemism or ambiguity. From double (suggesting duplicity) + -speak (as in 'speak'), coined in the 1950s on the model of George Orwell's 'doublethink' and 'Newspeak' from his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Unlike euphemism, a single, softer substitution, or jargon, the neutral shorthand of a trade, doublespeak is a systemic architecture of deceit. It is the sterile 'collateral damage' for blood on the street, the corporate 'downsizing' that erases a life's work, and the bureaucratic 'enhanced interrogation' that sanitizes a scream—a perverse poetry that hollows out words until they signify only their own absence.

Etymology

From double + -speak. Coined in the 1950s in the vein of George Orwell's Newspeak as used in his book Nineteen Eighty-Four. The word doublespeak does not appear in the book, although newspeak, oldspeak, and doublethink do.

noun

Any language deliberately constructed to disguise or distort its actual meaning, often by employing euphemism or ambiguity.“The report was riddled with so much corporate doublespeak that it was impossible to interpret.”