“Doublespeak is language that deliberately obscures, disguises, distorts, or reverses the meaning of words. Doublespeak may take the form of euphemisms (e.g., “downsizing” for layoffs and “servicing the target” for bombing),in which case it is primarily meant to make the truth sound more palatable. It may also refer to intentional ambiguity in language or to actual inversions of meaning. In such cases, doublespeak disguises the nature of the truth.”

Wikipedia

“Deliberately euphemistic, ambiguous, or obscure language.”

Oxford Dictionary

• over the top vs crazy
• senior citizen vs old person
• baby boomers vs over-50s
• substance abuse vs drug problem
• problem child vs exasperating difficulty
• take down vs kill
• ill advised vs bad idea
• restructure the company vs fire employees
• ethnic cleansing vs genocide
• collateral damage vs innocent civilians killed in conflict
• freedom fighter vs terrorist (on one’s side)
• capital punishment vs death penalty
• post-truth vs downplaying the facts
• occupied vs invaded and controlled by enemy forces
• climate change vs rising natural hazard risk
• right-sizing an enterprise vs firing employees
• job flexibility vs no contract and little or no job security

Do you know other double-speak examples? Feel free to write them down

double_speak.pdf