I think of "clutter words" as "flutter words." They may look pretty as they flutter around the substance of a sentence, but they are distracting. William Zinsser, author of On Writing Well, says that "fighting clutter is like fighting weeds--the writer is always slightly behind."

He defines clutter as "the laborious phrase which has pushed out the short word that means the same thing." Most people use word clutter carelessly, without intention, while other people use clutter in the hopes that they will sound more important or because they think it is expected in their profession. But in almost all cases, the use of such phrases should be avoided.

The following list of clutter words includes many redundancies, clichés, and bureaucratic phrases so ingrained in our speech and writing that most writers must concentrate just to notice them. This particular list focuses on clutter I've observed in business and technical writing. Once you've read a few, they'll probably begin leaping out at you!

Zinsser, William. On Writing Well: An Informal Guide to Writing Nonfiction. 2nd ed. New York: Harper & Row, 1980.