Can we please stop describing everything as “iconic” ?

Garry Berman
5 min readApr 8, 2022

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I’ve been a professional writer for a long time. I write books, articles, short stories, screenplays, etc. I pay attention to words — not just the words I use, but words others use as well. And I’ve become convinced that the word “iconic” is now the most overused word in the English language — or, at least, the most overused adjective.

Whether you agree or disagree, please note that this isn’t a scientific finding on my part — no polls, linguistic research, or algorithms were used (or harmed) in the writing of this piece. However, it is the result of extensive observation and scrutiny of our mass media in recent years. And, while I do a lot of writing, I am in no way promoting myself as any kind of Language Police or Grammar Gestapo. I make more errors with my own writing than I care to admit. But I just need to express this…

I will bet you any sum of imaginary money that you will hear the word “iconic” spoken or printed several times this very day, when you sit down to watch TV, listen to the radio or online podcast, skim your news feed, or however you choose to interact with the world. The word seems to have become the favorite go-to adjective of newscasters/reporters, commercials, documentaries, magazines, newspapers, and wherever the English language is found in our culture. I can also guarantee that if you scan down the column of headlines and articles on the Yahoo! or Microsoft home page feeds on any given day, you will find “iconic” staring back at you two or three times from the story headlines alone, even if you don’t click on the actual articles.

Yes, in our American culture’s collective laziness and semi-literacy, the thesaurus has apparently become as extinct as the dinosaur (and some might even mistake “thesaurus” for the name of a dinosaur). The result being that we now find nearly every landmark, bridge, skyscraper, bakery, book, film, song, entertainer, fashion style — you name it — described as “iconic,” even when the subject in question really isn’t, and never was. The other day, I swear I heard an actress described as an “iconic icon.”

An episode of the MeTV program Collector’s Call, which visits nostalgia mavens and their vast, private collections of pop culture memorabilia, reached a nadir of shameful proportions recently: between host Lisa Welchel, the featured collector of ’60s TV items, and the guest appraiser, the word “iconic” was bandied about among the three of them no fewer than eight times in the single, half-hour episode. Other episodes of the show have come close to this shameful total.

And the special 500th episode of Dancing with the Stars had the word spewing forth at a dizzying rate from virtually every participant, host, and judge throughout the two-hour celebration, causing the word to lose all meaning.

Fortunately, there is a generous choice of synonyms that offer the same meaning, any of which could replace “iconic” while retaining the essence of the phrase or sentence in which it is used. Just a few:

legendary

historic

famous

classic

renowned

seminal

epic

celebrated

illustrious

fabled

…or just plain “really cool.”

I implore you — use these synonyms! They’re free!

So, how about it, fellow English speakers and writers— any chance of mixing things up a bit and plucking a few words from the above list, or elsewhere, to free them from obscurity, and giving “iconic” a well-deserved rest?

Probably not. The word has somehow permeated our everyday speech and writing solidly in the past few years, having been absorbed and regurgitated relentlessly and without question on a daily basis, throughout all media — social and otherwise, and from people who should know better. Lazy, lazy, lazy!

Of course, you could respond with a shrug of the shoulders and lament, “It is what it is.”

Now there’s a phrase that needs to be relegated to the trash heap. It means nothing, says nothing, and you could remove the last three words and it will still retain its non-meaning.

“It is what it is.”

For that matter, why not apply variations of the phrase to other aspects of life: “That couch is a couch,” or “this hot tea is hot.” The phrase can probably be traced back to the famous but meaningless bit of doggerel of its ancestor, “A rose is a rose is a rose” (thanks for nothing, Gertrude Stein). Blah.

And don’t get me started about the common inquiry made by those who’ve just heard about a trend or practice for the first time: “…Is that a thing?”

A thing? What thing? Define “thing”! Sheesh!

So come on, you Millennials, and Generation X, Y, Z, and We’ve-Run-Out-Of-Letters-To-Describe-Ourselves people. Try a bit of variety to help save the English language from a slow death. Expand your linguistic horizons, even just a little. Save “iconic” as you would a fine wine, to be taken out only for special occasions or sentences in which any other word just wouldn’t do — and then propose a toast to yourself for demonstrating your restraint. I know you can do it.

Thank you for your kind indulgence.

Until next time…

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Garry Berman

Pop Culture historian, Freelance Writer, Author, specializing in American comedy history in films, radio, and TV. Beatles and jazz enthusiast, animal lover.