Another overused word

I discovered another word lurking in my prose to add to the list of my overused words.

I was reading the story for the trillionth time and noticed the word most in the same paragraph as the word almost.

Got rid of the echo and did a word search.

I can't say there were thousands or even hundreds. But there were too many instances, the majority  unnecessary. I removed most [see how I use it?] of the mosts.  I found the removal made no difference to the meaning I was trying to convey. And it tightened my writing.

If the word was being used by a character in dialogue or thought, I left it, for then it became part of that character's personality and manner of speech.  Much like the words  very, some, really, actually, nearly, and similar quantifiers that are vague can be superfluous.

And I do try to limit my use of adverbs.

– – Cat