new110,059

first56,724

mobile28,534

professional27, 859

current25,906

leading24,404

annual22,886

public21,603

private21,466

real21,188

best20,840

limited18,515

united18,424

free18,099

average18,093

general18,019

significant 17,782

top17,534

natural17,444

social16,260

full15,934

corporate15,826

digital15,716

many15,655

commercial15,598

economic15,550

key13,838

local13,579

important2,856

next12,687

largest12,258

outstanding12,067

major11,780

strong1,763

large10,988

effective10,951

strategic 10,875

core10,433

focused9,991

small9,941

great9,710

every9,511

unique9,472

special9,190

recent9,183

advanced9,113

innovative9,096

several8,994

better8,918

most26,774

SHIFT Communications examined a sample of 62,768 press releases published in 2013 on MarketWired.com and looked at the most commonly used descriptive words in them. The top overused words this year included new (used 110,059 times), first (used 56,724 times), mobile (used 28,534 times), professional (27,859 times), and most (used 26,774 times). How many of these words appeared in your news releases, blog posts, and other public relations materials in 2013 - and how many will you replace with more unique, more impactful words in 2014?

If you’re running out of words, don’t hesitate to ask for help! Contact SHIFT Communications today and work with our team of imaginative smarties to help your own story stand out. Learn more at http://www.shiftcomm.com today, or follow SHIFT @shiftcomm on Twitter.

Methodology: SHIFT Communications downloaded a random sample of 62,768 English language press releases published only during calendar year 2013 from MarketWired.com. Using custom-built software, SHIFT staff programmatically removed boilerplate and navigational text, then counted 43,448,554 words in the body text of the press releases and assigned frequencies of appearance to each. After compilation, SHIFT staff manually removed frequent, non-descriptive language articles (a, and, the, etc.) and nouns (About, Contact, Call, etc.) to create the list. SHIFT Communications was the sole sponsor, underwriter, and conductor of the research. Data was collected during the period 12/4/2013 - 12/18/2013 using automated tools.