By Paul Yeager, author of Literally, the Best Language Book Ever

We all have those certain little words or phrases that just drive us crazy (If you need proof, see  our Pet Peeves page), and the word facilitate has become that word for me recently.

It seems as if this word is used a hundred times per day, every day.

Facilitate means to make go more smoothly; it does not mean to lead.

While I would hope that the leader of a meeting would take a role in ensuring that a meeting goes more smoothly, not every leader is a facilitator and not every meeting has a facilitator.

Don’t worry; it will mean leader soon enough by most accounts. Remember, according to many, a misused word (mistake)  becomes an acceptable word when it’s repeated often enough.