Inclusive
language in the
workplace

Why does inclusive language matter?

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) language are ever-growing, always evolving, and increasingly important in the workplace right now. After all, language shapes culture and people crave supportive cultures and healthy communication in an uncertain world.

Inclusive language aims to be just that: inclusive of all people. Inclusive language avoids offensive and negative expressions that imply ideas that are sexist, racist, otherwise biased, prejudiced, or denigrating to any particular group of people.

Because DEI language is a work in progress, we recommend bookmarking this page; we’ll continually refresh it with some of the most important terms.

Principles of inclusive language

• Any group interactions should be applied with care and consideration, with an awareness of the diversity within and between groups, and always be couched in inclusive terms.
• Use people-centric language, which focuses on the person and reflects the individuality of people. People-centric language doesn’t classify or stereotype people based on their association or identity with a group or culture.
• Only reference personal attributes or characteristics when it’s relevant to the context.
• Consider a strengths-based approach (recognizing the agility of people and focusing on abilities, knowledge, and capacities), rather than a deficit approach (focusing on deficiencies of a person or group of people).
• Where appropriate, ask about the language the person prefers and respect their wishes. Don’t make assumptions about people or their characteristics based on stereotypes or limited information.
• Be conscious of the implications of your language. Avoid excluding others or making people invisible by your choice of language. Avoid language and expressions that disparage or trivialize others.
• Where possible, empower the person or group to speak for themselves. If you do need to speak on the behalf of a group of people, it is very important that you consult widely to ensure that the language you use is reflective of the group.
• Address and remove stereotypes and myths. If someone uses inappropriate language in your presence, speak out against it and correct the inappropriate language used, if safe.

Specific ways to implement inclusive language in the workplace:

• Ensure professional development materials in lectures and professional development settings, accurately reflect the diversity of the audience and society generally.
• When referencing material that includes non-inclusive language, use to demonstrate that this was used by the original author and is unacceptable language.
• When using examples in lectures or professional development workshops, avoid limiting the inclusion of people to only the area of their diversity.
• Ensure everything you do in the work space, such as developing lecture slides, developing and maintaining websites, scheduling meetings, is accessible for a diverse audience. This includes the language used and the way it is delivered.
• Educate yourself on cultural differences to ensure that your material and the delivery of your material are not offensive in cross-cultural communications.
• Address and remove stereotypes or inappropriate language in all instances — including casual conversation, such as catching up over coffee or discussions in tutorials.
• If someone uses inappropriate language in your presence, it’s good practice to use a positive, educative approach to inform the person why the language they used is inappropriate, and offer an alternative approach they could use next time.
• Ensure that the language and the delivery of your material is accessible to a diverse audience with diverse needs.
• Be aware of the context of the language being used. Some terms are ok to use by people as a means of claiming their identity, but are not ok, and can be seen as derogatory, when used by others.

Diversity and inclusion terms you need to know for an inclusive workplace

Age and family status

This category describes how to avoid discrimination on the basis of a person’s age and/or family status.

Avoid	Use
Give/given up for adoption	Placed for adoption, birth parent chose adoption
Is adopted	Was adopted
Adoptive parent	Parent
Orphan(s)	Child(ren) without parent(s)
Grandfather clause	Legacy, exempt from the new rule, exempted from the new rule, exempted
Master/slave	Leader/follower, primary/secondary, primary/standby, patriarch, indentured servant
Poor, blue-collar	Lower-income, person/people experiencing poverty, working class, wage earning
Homeless	Person/people experiencing homelessness, person/people without (a) home(s), unhoused, displaced
The hungry	Person/people experiencing food insecurity
Low-class people	Person/people experiencing socioeconomic difficulty
Welfare reliant	Person/people receiving government assistance
Homeless shelter	Person/people experiencing socioeconomic difficulty
Up-and-coming neighborhood	Gentrified neighborhood
Spinster, old maid, maiden (as in, my maiden aunt)	Person/people who is/are single, person/people who is/are unmarried, single people, unmarried people neighborhood
Divorcée, divorcé, divorcee	Person/people who is/are divorced, divorced people
Normal body	Non-disabled body
Geezer	Older person
Geriatric	Geriatric
Person that	Person who

Disability

This category describes how to avoid discrimination on the basis of a person’s disability status.

Avoid	Use
The handicapped, the disabled, the differently abled	Person/people with a disability/disabilities/impediment(s)/impairment(s), person/people with a disability, neurodiverse (when referring to cognitive ability)
Retarded	Person/people with a learning disability
Addict	Person/people with an addiction
confined to a wheelchair	Person/people who use(s) a wheelchair, uses a wheelchair
Normal, healthy, whole people	Person/people without disabilities/impediment(s)/impairment(s), non-disabled body, neurotypical (when referring to cognitive ability)
Disabled community, disabled sport	Disability community, sport for athletes with a disability
Person with a birth defect	Person/people who has/have a congenital disability/disabilities/impediment(s)/impairment(s)
Person afflicted with, suffers from, is stricken with, a victim of…	Person/people who has/have… person/people who has/have been diagnosed with…
Downs person, mongoloid, mongol, mongolism	Person/people who has/have Down syndrome
The autistic	Person/people who has/have (or has been diagnosed with) autism, person/people on the autism spectrum, on the spectrum
A quadriplegic, a paraplegic	Person/people with quadriplegia, person/people with paraplegia, person/people diagnosed with a physical disability/disabilities/impediment(s)/impairment(s)
A cripple, crippled	Person/people with a physical disability/disabilities/impediment(s), person/people with a mobility impairment(s), person/people who walk(s) with crutches, person/people who use(s) a walker
Deformed	Disfigurement, person/people who has a/are disfigurement/disfigured, disfigured
Epileptic	Person/people with epilepsy
A dwarf, a midget	Person/people of short stature, little person/people
Learning disability	Learning difference
Slow learner	Person with a learning disability
Dumb, mute, non-verbal	Person/people who is/are unable to speak, person/people who use(s) a communication device, communicates without using words
Hearing impaired, the deaf	Person/people who is/are deaf (little to no functional hearing, often communicates through sign language), person/people who is/are hard of hearing (mild to moderate hearing loss, may or may not use sign language)
The blind	Person/people who is/are blind, person/people who is/are visually impaired, person/people with low vision
Attack, spell, fit	Seizure
Learning disabled	Person/people with a learning disability
Brain damaged	Person/people with a brain injury, person/people who has/have sustained a brain injury
Crazy, insane, psycho, mentally ill, emotionally disturbed, demented, nuts	Person/people diagnosed with a mental health condition, person/people with a psychiatric disability
Sanity check	Quick check, confidence check, coherence check
Special ed student, special education student	Student(s) who receive(s) special education services
Confined to a wheelchair, wheelchair bound	Person/people who use(s) a wheelchair or a mobility chair
Handicapped parking, handicapped bathrooms, etc.	Accessible parking, accessible bathrooms
Special, courageous, heroic, inspiring, brave	Person/people who adapt(s) to their disability do not necessarily acquire these traits — consider whether the individual or situation merits these terms beyond disability.

Gender identity and gender expression

This category describes how to avoid discrimination on the basis of a person’s gender identity and expression.

Avoid	Use
Transgendered, a transgender (n.), transgenders, transvestite, tranny, she-male, he/she, it, shim	Transgender (adj.), trans
Transgenderism	Being transgender
Gender identity disorder	Gender dysphoria
Biologically male/female, genetically male/female, born a man/woman	Assigned male/female at birth, designated male/female at birth
Sex change, sex reassignment, sex-change operation, pre-operative, post-operative	Transition, gender affirmation
Hermaphrodite	Intersex
Normal	Non-transgender people, cisgender
Opposite sex	Different sex
Opposite sex	LGBTQ+ community
Special rights	Equal rights, equal protection
Passing, stealth, deceptive, fooling, pretending, posing, trap, masquerading	These terms should not be used because they promote the harmful idea that transgender people are being deceitful in their gender expression.
Actress	Actor
Businessman	Business person
Busboy	Busser
Anchorman	Anchor
Caveman	Cave dweller
Congressman	Congressperson
Countryman	Fellow citizen
Craftsman	Artisan
Crewman	Crew member
Doorman	Door attendant
Fireman	Firefighter
Fisherman	Angler
Forefather	Ancestor
Foreman	Supervisor
Gentleman	Person

Non-binary pronouns

This category describes how to avoid discrimination on the basis of a person’s non-binary pronouns.

Avoid	Use
Man	Person, individual
Man hours	Person hours, engineer hours
Mankind	People, human beings, humanity
He/him/his	They/them/their/you
The common man	The average person, folks
Chairman	Chair, chairperson, coordinator, head
Mailman	Mail carrier, letter carrier, postal worker
Policeman	Police officer
Females	To many English speakers, “females” sounds like a scientific designation one would use for animals or plants. Say “women” instead.
Girl/girls	For anyone over 18 years old, woman or women is a better choice.

Race, ethnicity, and nationality

This category describes how to avoid discrimination on the basis of a person’s race, ethnicity, and/or nationality.

Avoid	Use
Geographic descriptors interchangeably with religious or other terms to describe specific groups of people. For example, Muslim is not synonymous with Arab.	With regards to nationality, avoid using citizen as a generic term for people who live in a given country.
Indian, natives, red	Native American, American Indian (for groups). Individuals and/or individual tribes should be identified by tribal affiliation. Indigenous, aboriginal (for non-American), native (adj.) can be used to describe styles (e.g., native art)
Eskimo	Alaska Native (Eskimo refers to a specific tribe and isn’t all-inclusive)
Oriental, yellow, jap paki, flip	Asian, South Asian (India, Pakistan, etc.), East Asian (China, Japan, etc.), Southeast Asian (Indonesia, Philippines, etc.), demonym (a word used for people or the inhabitants of a place) can be joined with American (e.g., Asian American or Indian American)
Exotic, hapa	Pacific Islander (Fijian, Guamanian, Hawaiian, Northern Mariana Islander, Palauan, Samoan, Tahitian and Tongan)
Negro, colored, n—– (this word should never be spelled out, even when quoting someone)	Black, African American
Blacklist	Denylist, blocklist, block, deny, disallow, exclude
Spanish (for people not from Spain), brown	Latino/Latina/Latinx, Hispanic, Latin American, demonym (e.g., Mexican, Chilean)
Middle Eastern, Muslim (in reference to a geographic area)	Given the size and diversity of the Middle Eastern region, there is not an accepted encompassing racial or ethnic term. Some more accurate localized terms include: Arab (referring to an Arabic-speaking country), Persian (referring to Farsi-speakers), North African, as well as many more country and region-specific designations.
White, Anglo Saxon Protestant (WASP), redneck	White, Caucasian, European American
Whitelist	Allowlist
Nonwhite	Person/people of color, Black, Indigenious, People of Color (BIPOC), African American, Latino/a American, Asian American & Native American (ALANNA)
Mulatto	Multiracial, biracial, mixed race
Alien(s), illegal alien(s), illegal(s)	Undocumented non-citizen(s), undocumented immigrant(s), immigrant(s) undocumented immigrant(s), Undocumented
the undocumented	non-citizen(s)
Jew	Jewish person

Sexual orientation

This category describes how to avoid discrimination on the basis of a person’s sexual orientation.

Avoid	Use
Homosexual, gay (n.) (as in, He is a gay.), homo, sodomite	Gay (adj.), lesbian (n. or adj.), bisexual, bi (adj. and should not be hyphenated), queer (adj.)
Homosexuality, lesbianism, gay (as a pejorative)	Being gay/lesbian/bisexual/queer
Sexual preference, same-sex attractions, sexual identity	Sexual orientation, orientation
Gay/lesbian/bisexual lifestyle	LGBTQ+ people and their lives
Normal	Person/people who is/are not gay, person/people who is/are not lesbian, person/people who is/are not bisexual, heterosexual, heteronormative (to describe norms that shut out LGBTQ+ people)
Admitted homosexual, avowed homosexual, openly gay	Out, out gay man(men), out lesbian(s), out queer person/people

Business and technology

This category describes how to avoid discrimination within business and technology settings.

Avoid	Use
I will pray for you	I hope you are well
Slavin’	Working hard
Workaholic	Person who works a lot
That has nothing to do with me	I’m sorry, I do not know how to help you with this issue.
Stop wasting my time	I believe this is not the best way for us to use our time.
I’ve got more important things to worry about	I believe this is not the best way for us to use our time.
Personal circumstances should not affect your work	How can I help?
Leave it at home	How can I help?
If you can’t do a better job, I’ll find someone who can	If you want, we can transfer this work to someone else.
Because I’m in charge	Here’s what I’m thinking
Get your shit together	I think we can find more efficient ways of completing this task. Let’s sit down and discuss a few ideas.
Thank you in advance	Thank you for reading
Open kimono	Transparent, open book
Killed it	Did a great job, ended it
Par for the course	Expected
Fumble	Mistake, make a mistake
Blind-sided	Unexpectedly
Carry the ball	Be responsible for
Game plan	Plan of action
Bases are loaded	Have an advantage
Covering all the bases	Being thorough
Out of the ballpark	Beyond the limit
Off base	Mistaken
Play hardball	Be tough
Rain check	Accept at a later time
Right off the bat	Instantly
Step up to the plate	Respond to an opportunity
Touch base	Sync, follow up, connect
Home court advantage	Favorable position
Chip in	Contribute
Down to the wire	Right at the end
Front runner	Expected to win
Into full swing	Comfortable with, underway, in the midst of
Let her rip	Go ahead, went ahead

Politics, geopolitics, and the law

Avoid	Use
Libtard	Liberal
Feminazi	Feminist
Tree-hugger	Environmentalist
Is woke	Is a liberal person, is liberal
Wokerati	Liberal people
Forced sex	Rape
Antifa	Anti-fascist
Marital rape	Rape

Talent management

Avoid	Use
Years of experience	Experience solving, experience
Work hard play hard	working with, much experience
Pathologically	Wholeheartedly support a healthy work/life balance passionately, excitedly, energetically
Obsessed	Passionate about, excited about, love, energized by
Maternity/Paternity leave	Family leave
Ruthless	Persistent, determined, persevering
Objectives	Goals, ideas, plans
Resilient	Flexible, nimble, agile
Aggressive	Persistent, determined, persevering
Cool	Great, interesting, fascinating, compassionate, collegial, supportive
Fast-paced	Requires strong time-management skills, ability to prioritize many deadlines at once
Warrior	Professional, devoted, caring, passionate
Wizard	Professional, pro, expert, fluent, adept, certified
Skin in the game	Invested, devoted
Bleeding edge	Future, innovative, unconventional, new, high-risk, risky
Cutting edge	Latest, advanced, high-tech
Next level	Latest, advanced, high-tech
Live and breathe	Uphold, promote, embody, center, live by