Etym.Arising from late 20th century corporate speech, modeled on the physical action of returning to a point, popularized in meeting minutes and consultant memos; see Lang, 2002, 'Corporate Euphemisms and the Art of Delay'.

A polite verbal placeholder that postpones a decision or responsibility by promising an unspecified future follow-up.

'Let's circle back on this next week,' said the product manager - Q3 Board Deck, slide 47

Etym.from L. synergia, 'working together', revived in corporate English during the 2000s to supply a quantifiable-sounding cover for merger rhetoric; see E. Mallory, Journal of Corporate Rhetoric, 2011.

A deliberately vague noun deployed to claim added value from loosely related assets, thereby permitting assertions without metrics or timelines.

'We should prioritize synergy across products and partnerships' - Q3 Board Deck, slide 12

Etym.From L. scala, 'ladder', repurposed into corporate parlance circa 2010 by a consulting associate who needed a word that implied growth without immediate budgeting, see Henley, Corporate Metaphors, 2014.

To defer investment decisions and accountability by framing operational expansion as an inevitable future state rather than a present cost.

'We will scale next quarter' - Q3 Board Deck, slide 12

Etym.from mid-20th-century aviation jargon, repurposed in early 21st-century venture discourse to quantify company survival in investor communications, see Sommers, Venture Language, 2011.

A single-number projection, expressed in months of funded operation, that reduces cash on hand and burn rate to a negotiable timeframe used to justify spending, hiring, or fundraising.

'We need to extend runway by 12 months to hit the growth inflection' - Q2 Board Deck, slide 12