History Main / WeaponsGradeVocabulary

* In ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', The Thu'um is the [[LanguageOfMagic language of dragons]], which gives them small scale [[RealityWarper RealityWarping]] powers. Essentially, they "make real" whatever they speak in this language. For example, when a Dragon is "breathing" fire, they're technically commanding fire to come into existence, and battles between dragons are essentially [[WordsCanBreakMyBones very loud debates]].

* In ''VideoGame/SpongeBobSquarePantsBattleForBikiniBottom'', The [[EvilKnockoff SpongeBot SteelPants]] boss literally sends the words [[ItIsPronouncedTroPAY "KAH-RAH-TAE!"]] at [=SpongeBob=] after three of its lights are destroyed.

There's talking, insults, fighting words... and then there's weapons-grade vocabulary.

[[quoteright:250:[[ComicStrip/WhatsNewWithPhilAndDixie https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/weapons_grade_vocabulary.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:250:''[[http://web.archive.org/web/20150428205638/http://www.airshipentertainment.com/growfcomic.php?date=20071014 What's New? with Phil and Dixie]]'' ]]

* In ''WebVideo/ThePenguinsOfMadagascarOperationNWord'', the N-word, when spoken by Donald Trump, results in StuffBlowingUp. The first time he says it, it blows up the White House and kills Michelle Obama, while the second time destroys the Penguins' plane.

* ''WesternAnimation/OKKoLetsBeHeroes'': In "Presenting Joe Cuppa", the eponymous washed-up comedian helps defeat Shannon by telling [[HurricaneOfPuns puns so bad]], they manifest as a giant boxing glove that emerges from Joe's coffee-cup head and punches Shannon.

[[caption-width-right:250:''[[http://www.airshipentertainment.com/growfcomic.php?date=20071014 What's New? with Phil and Dixie]]'' ]]

* In ''VideoGame/SpongeBobSquarePantsBattleForBikiniBottom'', The [[Main/MirrorBoss SpongeBot SteelPants]] boss literally sends the words [[ItIsPronouncedTroPAY "KAH-RAH-TAE!"]] at [=SpongeBob=] after three of its lights are destroyed.
* One of Scott's moves in ''Scott Pilgrim vs The World: The Game'' is to have Knives create a giant "LOVE" that hits all enemies on screen, a reference to a HarshWordImpact scene in one of the books.

* The late Alderman Foodbotham, one-time Lord Mayor of Bradford in the ''Literature/PeterSimple'' newspaper columns, has many legends told of him. [[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3610930/End-column.html One such]] relates how he delivered a speech that literally annihilated his opponent -- "at least to the extent that he disappeared from view and all that was ever seen of him again was a single trouser button picked up months later on Cleckheaton Moor."

* In ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', Elan's "Dashing Swordsman" prestige class adds a bonus to his attack damage by making puns.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'', [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E2TheShakespeareCode "The Shakespeare Code"]]: A group of witches who specialize in WordPower (words are sort of the formula for certain effects, which is [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial not at all like magic spells being a real thing because that would be silly]]) are destroyed by William Shakespeare crafting a sonnet to banish them back to their prison. At the end, he finds himself at a loss to what would rhyme with "tinker's cuss" and still work with the other Words of Power he sewed together. Martha provides him with "[[Literature/HarryPotter Expelliarmus!]]" The Doctor reacts to the destruction by shouting, "Good old [[Creator/JKRowling JK]]!

* An episode of ''Series/TheTwilightZone1985'' called "Need to Know" featured a phrase that encapsulated the whole meaning of existence in a few words. Anyone who hears the phrase goes completely insane.

** The unusual example of hurting yourself by speaking the' supplement "Book of Vile Darkness" also contains "dark speech" -- a language so vile, it is almost impossible to actually communicate with it; with proper preparation you can tie it into magical effects but trying to just straight utter the words would make your mouth bleed.
** In the "Book of Vile Darkness" is a quiver that creates arrows for you every time you lie.
** This trope played straight: The 3rd edition ''Dungeons & Dragons'' supplement "Tome of Magic" contains rulesets for "truespeak" magics. Truenamers use the "Language of the universe" to reshape reality in ever-increasingly powerful ways.
** In the Fourth and Fifth Editions of ''D&D'', bards have an at-will "spell" called Vicious Mockery, which inflicts damage and status effects. Some bard players will use insult generators every time they use this attack.
** Multiple editions had the wizard spells Power Word: Stun, Power Word: Blind, and Power Word: Kill. Each is a single word that, if your target's current hit points are lower than a given number, causes them to automatically be stunned, blinded, or killed, respectively.
** 2nd and 3.0/3.5 Edition Clerics had Holy Word, Blasphemy (or Unholy Word, depending on the edition), Word of Chaos, and Order's Wrath. Each was effectively the same spell but targeted a different alignment- Holy Word affected Evil character, Blasphemy affected Good characters, etc. The spells gave varying debuffs based on the relative level of the target vs that of the cleric who cast i.

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** Also, witch Petulia Gristle has the secret of pig-boring. She can slaughter a pig humanely by talking to it in such a low, monotone, voice about such tediously trivial things that it loses the will to live. She weaponises this skill in ''Discworld/TheShepherdsCrown'' by applying it to Elves.

->'''Jeeve Ceeta:''' I've been in the military for twenty-five years, Ennesby. There's nothing you can teach me about nasty messages.\\

* The Deplorable Word in ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'' is one of the most dangerous weapons in existence--the instant it is spoken, all life in a world, except that of the speaker, is instantly and irreversibly annihilated. It's not known whether or not this was limited to Charn (Jadis's homeworld); thankfully, no one in the series ever tries it again.

There's a saying that sticks and stones can break your bones, but words will never hurt you. Well, with a weapons-grade vocabulary, words actually can physically hurt people. The words do not have to be spoken aloud, but can be read. Hurtful knowledge, like a long-held secret, can apply as long as the recipient is physically hurt by the literal spoken or written words. Words delivering harm via magic, or through [[MakeMeWannaShout sheer volume]], do not apply.

* ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'': Alice has foul language that actually affects people. She then accidentally did it to her boss at meeting about it. [[http://dilbert.com/strip/2015-04-09 This]], then at [[http://dilbert.com/strip/2015-04-10 meeting]]. Perhaps she learned it from [[http://dilbert.com/strip/1998-11-02 one of her coworkers.]] - though her own story is that it came from [[http://dilbert.com/strip/2001-09-02 one of her exes.]]

* ''Film/{{Pi}}'': Knowing THE number, among other things, is a true name of God, so knowing it has bad effects on body and sanity. Heck, a computer calculating it created slime and ants as side-effect. Pretty large effect for a mere 216 digit number.

* The Deplorable Word in ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'' is one of the most dangerous weapons in existence--the instant it is spoken, all life in a world, except that of the speaker, is instantly and irreversibly annihilated. It's not known whether or not this was limited to Charn (Jadis's home world); thankfully, no one in the series ever tries it again.

* ''Literature/AWizardInRhyme'': In the MedievalEuropeanFantasy AlternateUniverse, poetry ''is'' magic that can cause the things it describes to become real -- one real-world character who arrives in the setting is branded as a "wizard" for ''accidentally'' rhyming. The quality, applicability, and cultural impact of the verse determines how much power it can bring to bear.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'', [[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E2TheShakespeareCode "The Shakespeare Code"]]: A group of witches who specialize in WordPower (words are sort of the formula for certain effects, which is [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial not at all like magic spells being a real thing because that would be silly]]) are destroyed by William Shakespeare crafting a sonnet to banish them back to their prison. At the end, he finds himself at a lost to what would rhyme with "tinker's cuss" and still work with the other Words of Power he sewed together. Martha provides him with "[[Literature/HarryPotter Expelliarmus!]]" The Doctor reacts to the destruction by shouting, "Good old [[Creator/JKRowling JK]]!

** In the "Book of Vile Darkness" is a quiver that creates arrows for you every time you lies.

* In ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiSuperstarSaga'', Peach's [[spoiler:actually Birdo's]] voice is stolen and replaced with Cackletta's [[StuffBlowingUp explosive vocabulary.]] The characters keep having to scurry out of harms way whenever she speaks. Then she attempts a full paragraph, and blows out every window in the palace.

* There's several sound-based attacks in the ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' series, varying in type between MakeMeWannaShout, BrownNote and this trope. An example of this type is 'Snarl', a dark-type attack that seemingly involves the Pokémon ranting and shouting at the target for a while, inflicting damage and lowering their attack-power.

* In ''VideoGame/EnterTheGungeon'' exists a gun in a shape of a letter "r". Upon pulling the trigger, it shoots the letters B-U-L-L-E-T-! in a burst and utters this word out loud.

* ''Webcomic/{{Vexxarr}}'': [[http://www.vexxarr.com/archive.php?seldate=071906 Weapons grade pleading?]]

* ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal'': After failing to defeat humans, aliens finally resort to weapons grade information as [[https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/psyops final weapon against humans.]]

* An issue of the ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' comic book had a plant-like alien race that, after copying nearby Earthlings, proceed to drone endlessly on and on about inane subjects until their victims quite literally die of boredom. Leela eventually figures out that the plants have to be defeated at their own game, and has ''Fry'' babble about his own trivial interests until the aliens themselves wither.
* Ultimate Vision is a space probe modified successively over billions of years to adapt and assimilate the appearance and language of every alien species she encounters. Naturally the more exotic ones have equally exotic forms of language which she weaponizes. She can speak in neurotransmitters to rewrite your brain back to sanity or curse you out with microwave laser or sing songs with gravity singularities for lyrics.

* ''WesternAnimation/OKKoLetsBeHeroes'': In "Meet Joe Cuppa", the eponymous washed-up comedian helps defeat Shannon by telling [[HurricaneOfPuns puns so bad]], they manifest as a giant boxing glove that emerges from Joe's coffee-cup head and punches Shannon.

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* In ''Franchise/AceAttorney'', particularly clever counterpoints apparently have the ability to hit opposing attorneys like a gale-force wind, throwing them back, making them flinch, shattering their glasses, and, in one particularly devastating case, tearing all the hair off a person's head, leaving him mostly bald. Witnesses who've had their contradictions pointed out tend to react as though they'd been physically struck.

** In the Fourth Edition of ''D&D'', bards have an at-will "spell" called Vicious Mockery, which inflicts damage and status effects. Some bard players will use insult generators every time they use this attack.

If the damage is done by magic, it's WordsCanBreakMyBones. If it's convincing another character or monster to hurt/kill themselves it's TalkingTheMonsterToDeath. Compare with BrownNote which is merely sound or image, not content. If it's a visual metaphor for the words hurting people (usually psychologically), then it's closer to HarshWordImpact. Works using this trope will often discuss The PowerOfLanguage.

If the damage is done by magic, it's WordsCanBreakMyBones. If it's convincing another character or monster to hurt/kill themselves it's TalkingTheMonsterToDeath. Compare with BrownNote which is merely sound or image, not content. If it's a visual metaphor for the words hurting people (usually psychologically), then it's closer to HarshWordImpact.

->'''Jeeve Ceeta:''' I've been in the military for twenty five years, Ennesby. There's nothing you can teach me about nasty messages.\\

* There is a ''Series/DoctorWho'' audio Drama where Donna defeats a blob monster with nothing but pure indignation.

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* ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'':
** Vogon poetry, which makes the listeners seriously ill or worse. It is advised to take some other option than that.
** There's the recalcitrant witness who was given too much truth serum and ended up telling ''[[ThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.]]'' They had to evacuate the courtroom and seal him up inside. When Arthur and company find him later, he's no longer a danger -- apparently, there's less truth in the universe than most people would believe -- but he ultimately dies of laughter after realizing he's talking to ''the'' Arthur Dent, who is apparently [[CosmicPlaything the victim of the universe's funniest practical joke.]]
* The late Alderman Foodbotham, one-time Lord Mayor of Bradford in the ''Literature/PeterSimple'' newspaper columns, has many legends told of him. [[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3610930/End-column.html One such]] relates how he delivered a speech that literally annihilated his opponent -- "at least to the extent that he disappeared from view and all that was ever seen of him again was a single trouser button picked up months later on Cleckheaton Moor."

* The Deplorable Word in ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'' is one of the most dangerous weapons in existence--the instant it is spoken, all life in a world, except that of the speaker, is instantly and irreversibly annihilated. It's not known whether or not this was limited to Charn (Jadis's home world); thankfully, no one in the series ever tries it again.
** BigGood Aslan uses an inverted example--his singing ''creates'' Narnia.
* ''Literature/{{Orthogonal}}'': There is a myth that the poem, if written on a being's body then pressed against that of another, would in a short time be deadly. They are [[StarfishAliens very different from humans]], so they form writing with their bodies, then dye their skin and press paper on it. Basically, it's a weapons-grade poem.
* ''Literature/AWizardInRhyme'': In the MedievalEuropeanFantasy AlternateUniverse, poetry ''is'' magic that can cause the things it describes to become real -- one real-world character who arrives in the setting is branded as a "wizard" for ''accidentally'' rhyming. The quality, applicability, and cultural impact of the verse determines how much power it can bring to bear.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'', "The Shakespeare Code": A group of witches who specialize in WordPower (words are sort of the formula for certain effects, which is [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial not at all like magic spells being a real thing because that would be silly]]) are destroyed by William Shakespeare crafting a sonnet to banish them back to their prison. At the end, he finds himself at a lost to what would rhyme with "harm us" and still work with the other Words of Power he sewed together. Martha provides him with "[[Literature/HarryPotter Expelliarmus!]]" The Doctor reacts to the destruction by shouting, "Good old [[Creator/JKRowling JK]]!"

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* In ''Videogame/FistOfTheNorthStarLostParadise'', enemies killed via [[PressurePoint Meridian Shock]] will let out a visible death cry that can either turn into power-ups or drop to the ground, allowing Kenshiro to pick it up and swing it around as a weapon.

[[folder:Visual Novels]]
* In ''Franchise/AceAttorney'', particularly clever counterpoints apparently have the ability to hit opposing attorneys like a gale-force wind, throwing them back, making them flinch, shattering their glasses, and, in one particularly devastating case, tearing all the hair off a person's head, leaving him mostly bald. Witnesses who've had their contradictions pointed out tend to react as though they'd been physically struck.
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