[7] Officialese is meant to impress the listener (or reader) and increase the authority (more than the social status) of the user, making them appear more professional.
[3] It can be used to make oneself understood to insiders while being hard to decipher by those unfamiliar with the jargon and subtexts used.
[9] Officialese has been criticized as making one's speech or prose "stilted, convoluted, and sometimes even indecipherable";[3] or simply as the "cancer of language".
[3] Several similar concepts to officialese exist, including genteelism, commercialese, academese, and journalese.
[3] The existence of officialese has been recognized by a number of organizations, which have made attempts to curtail its use in favour of plain language.