My 6th grade teacher asks: What does the expression 'thought leader' mean?

The season for banishing words is right around the corner

Nov 10, 2025

My sixth grade teacher likes to post brain-stretching questions on social media. A couple of days ago he asked, “What does the expression ‘thought leader’ mean?”

I didn’t stop to ask why he was asking. Or bother to answer his question. Instead I responded this way:

“That’s a phrase I’d like to phase out. Same with influencer,” I wrote. “I think thought leader reflects the idea that no one is a follower. Call it reputation inflation? eg. ‘Noted historian Herodotus…’ ‘Award winning thought leader Isaiah Berlin…’ ‘The amazing William Shakespeare…’

My sixth grade teacher wrote, “When somebody describes themself as a thought leader it seems just a bit ego driven.”

Word.

In less than two months, Lake Superior State University will publish its annual Banished Words List. (Thought leader was banned in 2019 — and here I am still using it.)

These words and phrases are so cliched that they can cause a visceral reaction. They’re so overused that they’ve certainly jumped the shark. (Jump the shark predates the Banished Words List. It’s a phrase unknown to Gen Z, so it might be safe to bring it back.)

I had prepared a submission for the list, but as I was filling out the form, I discovered I had missed the deadline by one day.

My submission was “be like.”

As a colloquial phrase it has been around for decades. It can mean “is like.” It can mock. Let it live long and prosper. As an idiom, it’s used by many young folk to boost their prestige. And “be like” has leaked into the TikTok world, where older folks who should know better have discovered it. This has led, in unfortunate cases, to elders throwing the term around like some dad, circa 1969, asking his kids, “Can you dig it?”