What Are Filler Words? Meaning, Types and Examples
By the Inverse.AI team · Updated November 2026
Filler words fill a pause in speech without adding to the message. Example: "I was, um, looking for the, like, remote."
Filler words fill a pause in spoken English and tell the listener that the speaker has not finished. Linguists call um and uh filled pauses, and they file words such as well under discourse markers. Two types do most of the work: hesitation sounds like um and er, and real words like like and you know.
Sixty-five examples show both types in use, next to the most common fillers and the padding words that creep into writing. The setting changes how often fillers appear. In speech audio, hesitation sounds can be cut after recording, while word fillers need a person's decision.
Last verified: November 3, 2026
What Are Filler Words?
Filler words are sounds, words or short phrases, such as um, uh, like and you know, that speakers use to fill a pause without adding to the message. Fillers give speakers time to plan the next words and show listeners that the speaker is not finished.
Oxford Learner's Dictionaries defines um as the written form of the sound people make when they hesitate or do not know what to say next. Clark and Fox Tree (Cognition, 2002) treat uh and um as conventional English words that speakers plan like any other word.
Filled pauses are relatively frequent in spontaneous speech, the unscripted talk of everyday conversation. Writing has its own sense of the term, covered in a later section.
- Filler word: a sound, word or phrase that fills a pause and adds nothing to the meaning of the sentence.
- Filled pause: a hesitation with a sound, such as um or uh, that keeps the speaker's turn going.
- Silent pause: a hesitation with no sound at all; a silent pause is a pause, not a filler.
What Are Filler Words Called?
Filler words go by several names. Linguists call um and uh filled pauses or hesitation markers and call words such as well discourse markers. Linguists also group fillers with repeats and restarts under the broader term disfluency. Sociolinguist Valerie Fridland calls these words crutch words.
Each name covers a slightly different set of fillers and comes from a different source.
- Filled pause: linguists use this term for a hesitation with sound, such as um, and set it against the silent pause.
- Hesitation marker: Wieling and colleagues use this term for um and uh in their study of six Germanic languages.
- Discourse marker: Oxford Learner's Dictionaries defines it as a word or phrase that organizes spoken language, such as "Well..."
- Disfluency: Bortfeld and colleagues use this wider term, which covers fillers such as uh along with repeats and restarts.
- Crutch word: Valerie Fridland, a sociolinguistics professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, uses this everyday name for fillers.
A discourse marker keeps a meaning of its own in other sentences. Um has no dictionary meaning beyond signaling a pause, a delay or that the speaker is not finished. Disfluency is the wider label, not a synonym: it counts fillers alongside repeats and restarts.
What Are the Types of Filler Words?
Filler words come in two main types: hesitation sounds and word fillers. Hesitation sounds (um, uh, er, erm, hmm) have no dictionary meaning beyond signaling a pause, a delay or that the speaker is not finished. Word fillers (like, so, well, you know, I mean) are real words or phrases that fill time in some sentences.
- Filler words
- Hesitation sounds (filled pauses): um, uh, er, erm, hmm
- Word fillers (discourse markers and stock phrases)
- Single-word fillers: like, so, well
- Phrase fillers: you know, I mean
A silent pause is a pause, not a filler, so it sits outside the tree.
Single-word fillers usually work as discourse markers, and phrase fillers are stock phrases. The table puts the three types side by side, with what an audio editor can do about each one.
| Filler type | Examples | Own meaning in other uses? | Where it shows up | Can a sound-based remover cut it automatically? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hesitation sound (filled pause) | um, uh, erm | No dictionary meaning beyond signaling a pause | Speech | Yes, for um, uh, er, erm and hmm |
| Single-word filler (discourse marker) | like, so, well | Yes | Speech and informal writing | No, needs a manual cut |
| Phrase filler | you know, I mean, kind of | Yes | Speech and informal writing | No, needs a manual cut |
The deletion test settles each case: a word works as a filler when the sentence keeps the same meaning without it. Noise Reducer's filler word remover detects hesitation sounds instead of reading a transcript, and it leaves word fillers such as like and you know for you to cut by hand.
Are And, OK and Oh Filler Words?
And, OK and oh are real words that become filler words only when they fill time instead of adding meaning. All three join the word fillers when the deletion test leaves the sentence meaning unchanged. In other sentences, each word keeps its normal job as a conjunction, an agreement word or an interjection, and OK often works as a discourse marker that opens a new part of a talk.
Each row sets a word's filler use next to its normal use.
| Word | Filler use | Normal use |
|---|---|---|
| and | "I got home and, and, and then I forgot." | "I bought bread and milk." |
| OK | "OK, the meeting moved. OK, bring your laptop." | "OK, Friday at six works for me." |
| oh | "Oh... I think it was Tuesday." | "Oh! You painted the kitchen." |
So is the hardest case of all, and the guide that asks is so a filler word runs it through a word-by-word test.
What Are Examples of Filler Words?
Filler words fall into hesitation sounds, single-word fillers and phrase fillers, and the 65 examples here follow that grouping. Each table pairs a filler with an original sentence that shows it in use. Many single-word fillers are intensifiers such as totally or literally, and many phrase fillers are hedges such as kind of.
Sixty-five spoken fillers sort into three groups, running from bare sounds through single words to full stock phrases.
Hesitation sounds (9)
| Filler | Example sentence | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| um | "I think the file is, um, on my desktop." | Holds the turn while planning |
| uh | "We need, uh, three more chairs for tonight." | Fills a brief planning gap |
| er | "The train leaves at, er, half past nine." | Stalls before a detail |
| erm | "Erm, could you say that again, please?" | Delays a request |
| ah | "The password is, ah, written somewhere here." | Fills time while recalling |
| hmm | "Hmm, let me check the calendar first." | Shows the speaker is thinking |
| oh | "Oh, where was I going with this?" | Only opens a turn, so a filler |
| huh | "Huh, I lost my train of thought there." | Covers a lost thought |
| uh huh | "Uh huh, and then what did she say?" | Signals listening without taking over |
Single-word fillers (25)
| Filler | Example sentence | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| like | "It was like the best concert ever." | Softens or approximates a claim |
| so | "So, I started the new job on Monday." | Opens a turn with backstory |
| well | "Well, the plan changed late last night." | Eases into a new point |
| right | "We meet at noon, right, near the gate." | Checks the listener is following |
| okay | "Okay, the slides are on the screen now." | Only opens a turn, so a filler |
| yeah | "Yeah, so the budget is still pending." | Fills the start of a reply |
| actually | "I actually finished the draft this morning." | Adds stress, no new fact |
| basically | "Basically, the server went down twice today." | Previews a summary |
| literally | "I was literally waiting forever at the bank." | Intensifies without literal meaning |
| seriously | "That movie was seriously long, though." | Intensifies a plain claim |
| totally | "I totally forgot about the team meeting." | Stresses a simple statement |
| honestly | "Honestly, the food there is fine." | Signals candor, adds nothing |
| absolutely | "It was absolutely a busy weekend for us." | Inflates a mild description |
| frankly | "Frankly, I have no idea who called." | Frames an opinion as blunt |
| anyway | "Anyway, the bus finally showed up." | Returns to the main thread |
| look | "Look, we can sort this out tomorrow." | Grabs attention before a point |
| see | "See, the cable was never plugged in." | Points the listener at a detail |
| now | "Now, the second slide shows our sales." | Marks a shift to new content |
| just | "I just wanted to ask a quick question." | Softens a request |
| sure | "Sure, so the report goes out Friday." | Fills time before a reply |
| wait | "Wait, what was the second item again?" | Pauses to recover a thought |
| alright | "Alright, everyone, let's look at the numbers." | Opens a new part of talk |
| obviously | "Obviously, the meeting ran late again." | Claims shared knowledge needlessly |
| essentially | "It's essentially a small kitchen upgrade." | Hedges a description |
| clearly | "Clearly, the new printer hates me." | Adds emphasis, not information |
Phrase fillers (31)
| Filler | Example sentence | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| you know | "The new office is, you know, near the station." | Invites the listener to infer meaning |
| I mean | "The trip was fine, I mean, mostly fine." | Signals a clarification |
| you see | "You see, the lease ends in March." | Draws the listener into an explanation |
| I guess | "I guess we could leave around eight." | Hedges a suggestion |
| I suppose | "I suppose the old laptop still works." | Hedges a statement |
| kind of | "The soup was kind of cold tonight." | Blurs a description |
| sort of | "He sort of finished the painting yesterday." | Blurs a precise claim |
| kinda | "I'm kinda tired after the long drive." | Casual hedge |
| you know what I mean | "It felt off, you know what I mean?" | Asks for agreement, adds nothing |
| at the end of the day | "At the end of the day, the price decides it." | Frames a final point |
| believe me | "Believe me, the line was very long." | Adds emphasis, not evidence |
| to be honest | "To be honest, I skipped the second half." | Signals candor |
| let me tell you | "Let me tell you, that hike was steep." | Builds up a plain point |
| I'm telling you | "I'm telling you, the cafe closed early." | Repeats emphasis |
| for real | "That test was hard, for real, today." | Adds casual emphasis |
| something like that | "He works in sales, something like that." | Leaves a claim vague |
| kind of thing | "It's a weekly check-in kind of thing." | Rounds off a vague category |
| for all intents and purposes | "For all intents and purposes, the project is done." | Long hedge for "mostly" |
| as it were | "He was the boss, as it were, for one day." | Flags loose wording |
| let's say | "We could meet, let's say, around four." | Marks an estimate |
| guess what | "Guess what, the package arrived early." | Builds suspense before news |
| and stuff | "We packed snacks, blankets and stuff for the trip." | Trails off a list |
| or whatever | "Bring a salad or whatever you like." | Leaves a choice open |
| or something | "Let's grab pizza or something after work." | Keeps a plan loose |
| and so on | "We cleaned the desks, shelves and so on." | Cuts a list short |
| I don't know | "It was, I don't know, a weird meeting." | Hedges an opinion |
| okay so | "Okay so, the first step is the login." | Opens an explanation |
| if you will | "The app is a diary, if you will." | Flags a loose metaphor |
| ya know | "It's a long drive, ya know, from here." | Casual check on the listener |
| you feel me | "That job wore me out, you feel me?" | Asks for empathy |
| you get me | "I need a break, you get me?" | Checks that the listener agrees |
Transition words such as "in other words", "by the way" and "besides" stay off these tables, because they do real work in a sentence.
What Are the Most Common Filler Words?
Um and uh are the most studied filler words in English, and like, you know, I mean, so, well and right are word fillers that research and dictionaries name often. None of the studies cited here ranks fillers by frequency, so the list has no single winner.
The eight fillers in this list come up again and again in research and dictionary entries. Each line adds one fact about how the filler behaves, and the order is not a frequency rank.
- Um: Wieling and colleagues found um gaining on uh in six Germanic languages, a change generally led by women and more educated speakers.
- Uh: Kirjavainen, Crible and Beeching (2022) put disfluencies, including filled pauses such as uh, at roughly 2 to 6 per 100 words in spontaneous speech.
- Like: sociolinguist Valerie Fridland says like can signal an approximation or introduce a quote in casual speech.
- You know: this phrase invites the listener to infer meaning that the speaker leaves unsaid, according to Fridland.
- I mean: this phrase signals that the speaker is about to clarify or correct the last point made.
- So: sentence-initial so introduces backstory the listener needs before the main point arrives, Fridland says.
- Well: Oxford Learner's Dictionaries gives "Well..." as an example of a discourse marker that organizes spoken language into parts.
- Right: this word often closes a statement as a quick check that the listener follows, which makes it a filler there.
The six languages in the Wieling study are English, Dutch, German, Norwegian, Danish and Faroese. Oxford Learner's Dictionaries labels erm and er as British English, and American speakers write the same sound as uh or um.
Do Other Languages Have Filler Words?
Wieling and colleagues found hesitation markers like um and uh in English and five other Germanic languages: Dutch, German, Norwegian, Danish and Faroese. Word fillers differ from language to language, and the guide to Spanish, French and Japanese filler words lists them per language. German speakers also use these hesitation markers.
What Are Filler Words in Writing?
In writing, filler words are padding words such as very, really, just, actually and basically that add length without adding meaning. The spoken examples above cover speech, and this table shows only the editing fix.
Ten words do most of the padding in everyday writing.
| Word | Padded sentence | Tighter sentence |
|---|---|---|
| very | The meeting was very important for the team. | The meeting mattered to the team. |
| really | We really need to finish the report today. | We need to finish the report today. |
| highly | The new policy is highly likely to change. | The new policy will probably change. |
| just | I just wanted to send a quick update. | I wanted to send a quick update. |
| actually | The plan actually worked better than we expected. | The plan worked better than we expected. |
| basically | The app basically tracks your daily water intake. | The app tracks your daily water intake. |
| definitely | This is definitely the best option we have. | This is the best option we have. |
| literally | The office was literally packed with boxes today. | The office was packed with boxes today. |
| totally | The second draft is totally different from the first. | The second draft differs from the first. |
| seriously | We need to seriously rethink the launch date. | We need to rethink the launch date. |
Intensifiers such as very and hedging language such as basically make up most of this list. A writer can delete padding words during editing, and each cut moves the text toward concise writing. Transition words such as however and in addition do real work, so they are not fillers. In an essay, padding raises the word count without raising the content.
When Do Speakers Use Filler Words?
Speakers use filler words most in unscripted conversation, where a filler holds the turn while the speaker plans, and less in settings where no one expects to interrupt, such as lectures and stories. Valerie Fridland notes that um and uh rarely show up where interruption is not expected. Turn-taking explains most of the pattern: a filler matters when someone else might take the floor.
The same um does a different job in each setting. Read the table as editorial guidance; only the conversation and lecture rows restate research.
| Setting | What fillers do here |
|---|---|
| Casual conversation | A filler holds the floor while the speaker plans the next words (Clark and Fox Tree). |
| Phone or video call | A filler tells the other person that the speaker is still there and not finished. |
| Job interview | A filler buys planning time before a hard answer; a short silent pause does the same job. |
| Lecture or presentation | Fillers show up less, since listeners do not expect to cut in (Fridland). |
| Published podcast or video | Hesitation sounds can be cut after recording, while word fillers stay unless an editor removes them. |
Why Do People Say Um and Uh?
Speakers use fillers while they plan the next words, which ties this question to the settings above. The guide to why people use filler words covers the planning research by Clark and Fox Tree, along with floor holding and turn-taking.
What Can You Do About Filler Words?
You can use fewer filler words while you speak, mainly by pausing in silence, or cut hesitation sounds from a recording afterward. A silent pause can replace a filler in live speech, while audio editing helps only once a recording exists.
Two routes exist, and each one works on a different set of fillers.
| Route | When | Works on |
|---|---|---|
| Change speaking habits | Before and during speech | All fillers |
| Edit the recording | After recording | Hesitation sounds automatically, word fillers by hand |
How Do You Get Rid of Saying Uh and Um?
The simplest fix is to replace the filler with a short silent pause. The guide on how to stop using filler words lists seven habits for public speaking and a practice tracker for your speaking habits.
Can You Cut Ums From a Recording After You Make It?
Yes, a sound-based filler word remover cuts hesitation sounds such as um, uh, er, erm and hmm from an audio file and lists each cut for you to review. Noise Reducer's tool to remove filler words from audio keeps word fillers such as like and you know. You add those cuts to the cut list yourself.
Video works too: from an MP4, MOV or WebM file only the sound is uploaded, and the filler-free MP4 is made in your browser.
Which Tools Remove Filler Words Automatically?
Some tools find fillers in a text transcript and others listen for hesitation sounds, and the linked roundup compares them. The roundup of the best filler word removers sets both kinds of automatic detection side by side for podcast editing.
Can You Remove Filler Words in CapCut?
Yes, CapCut's desktop editor finds fillers such as um, uh, like and you know in its auto-generated transcript. Auto captions are a separate tool in this video editor, and a step-by-step guide shows how to remove filler words in CapCut.