scare word
n.— Note: A boo word. «The worries are real—including, among some economists, about the risks of a depression, which despite its scare-word status is just another term for an especially long or deep recession.» —“izing Up the Economic Stimulus” iStockAnalyst Feb. 10, 2009. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
One secret to writing well is … there is no secret! There’s no substitute for simply sitting down day after day to practice the craft and learn from your mistakes. Plus, childhood mixups around word definitions can lead to some funny stories...
How do actors bring Shakespeare’s lines to life so that modern audiences immediately understand the text? One way is to emphasize the names of people and places at certain points. That technique is called billboarding. And: Anyone for an...