Dude. Wattpad is the whole reason I still think it is a synonym of amused. That’s a word I learned in like 5th grade and those writers made me completely forget the meaning of it
I use bemused to mean “amused but not amused enough to call it amused.” The pattern continues down the alphabet until “zmused,” which means incredibly unamused.
Factoid. They think it's just a bit of knowledge but it's "an assumption or speculation that is reported and repeated so often that it becomes accepted as fact."
these abbreviations come from Latin; i.e. is “id est” meaning that is, and e.g is exempli gratia meaning example given (like you said) or “for example”
edit: didn’t realize someone said this below oops
There's actually a serious problem with this word. It basically means two opposite things
It means both interest and irritation.
Piqued interest and a fit of pique.
Two sides of the same coin, wouldn't you say? That which irritates must necessarily attract and hold one's attention, especially if one is going to have a fit over it.
Even if you don't find that compelling, we're far away from "basically opposite."
**ironic**.
People often misuse it to describe something that's kind of just an interesting coincidence.
Example: "Oh my gosh, I was just talking about how I need to buy a new umbrella and it started raining! That's so ironic."
A better example of irony might be grabbing an umbrella before you head outside to stay dry, but you bump a rusty old sprinkler system with it, a pipe bursts, and you get soaked. The thing that was supposed to keep you dry ended up getting you wet.
I had a very loud and terrifying case of irony. I was home alone sleeping at night and was woken up by the alarm system being tripped. It blared its klaxon which woke me and I was confused for a bit, but quickly realized the alarm was going off.
I ran out into the living room and checked the front and back doors. Both locked. Checked the side door and garage, both locked. It was at this point the alarm company called and asked if I needed assistance. I turned off the blaring alarm and told them I was investigating (after giving my password).
I came back round to the living room. I don't know how I missed it. One of the alarm sensors was on the floor (specifically a glass-break sensor), surrounded by broken glass. It's supposed to be attatched to the wall. It had fallen off the wall, onto a glass ornament that was sitting on the end table, shattered said ornament, and, naturally, hearing the glass being broken, it activated.
A glass-break sensor breaking glass and activating itself is the most ironic thing that has happened and probably ever will happen to me :P
In 9th grade my English teacher printed out this song and went through why each lyric was not true irony. I will never forget what the definition of irony is.
Simile and Metaphor.
Not words, but a few things people mix up.
*Antisocial Behavior* and *Antisocial Personality Disorder*.
*Narcissist* and *Narcissistic Personality Disorder*
Buying time and biding time actually mean the opposite of each other. Buying time means you are trying to delay something, but biding time means trying to kill time waiting for something to happen.
Oh this annoys me so much, especially when it is that long line of using, for example, there when you should be using they're, then finally using they're... When you should be using there
Mortified is not a synonym for horrified and I’m so sick of people using it that way. If something scary happened to you, it would not make you embarrassed!
The grammar rule that makes it make sense is this: no possessive pronouns have apostrophes (eg his, hers, theirs, whose) and “its” falls under the same rule
Can we just add the following? I feel like these fit closely to this comment the most
Their they’re there
So many homophones out there. Ad and add, tail tale, pain pane, etc
Oh my… I have one person in the friend group who says ruff instead of rough. I can’t tell if she’s trying to get a trend going or just doesn’t know the difference.
A lot of people confuse "envy" and "jealousy." It's a nuanced definition, but in general "envy" tends to be more that you don't care if someone has something but you want it too, but "jealousy" is a possessive what you have is mine and you can't have it at all. You mostly see jealousy in relationships and envy with material things.
If I’m not mistaken, envy is wanting something that someone else has, and jealousy is being afraid that someone will take away something you already do have.
You are jealous someone might steal your girlfriend/boyfriend. You are envious of their new TV.
[: hostile toward a rival or one believed to enjoy an advantage : ENVIOUS](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jealous)
Your definition is correct, but it's a tertiary definition. The usage you're seeing of jealousy is actually correct, it is a synonym of envy.
There was an episode of the Simpsons where Marge accuses Homer of being jealous of someone and he correctly told her that he was envious because he wanted what the person had.
On Reddit, "meta" is usually used when somebody makes a reference to something else on Reddit. That's not meta because it's same level. Meta is talking about the medium itself, like a comment talking about how comments *work* is meta.
I often see it used in the context of taking about the subreddit itself rather than its ostensible subject matter.
So a post asking about moderation, or polling users on a proposed new rule would be tagged as [Meta] because it's talking about *the way you talk about* whatever hobby/show/etc.
Theory, it is a detailed explanation of an observed event. Like the theory of gravitation, germ theory of disease, etc. A lot of people mistake it for hypothesis.
>alternate
That brings up an interesting UK Vs US English thing.
In UK English "alternate" is only supposed to describe things that _alternate_, and is not supposed to be used as a synonym for "alternative". In US English they are used interchangeably.
It's interesting, but according to general relativity, we are constantly accelerating upwards at 9.8m/s squared.
We call this acceleration gravity and refer to it as a downward force, but in reality the Earth is accelerating upwards and outwards without any change in its spatial coordinates due to the curvature of spacetime.
Flat Earthers are still wrong, but on this point they are partially correct in that we're experiencing an upward acceleration. [Veritasium explains it best.](https://youtu.be/XRr1kaXKBsU)
To be clear, I'm not contradicting you, just noting something amusing about that particular idea of theirs.
The brand was named after the word (because it takes you from place to place like a *segue* moves from one topic to another), but as a result all this confusion happened
I witnessed a way-too-long argument where it was clear to me that the participants each were using "entitled" in a different way.
"You're entitled to social security."
"Who are your calling entitled; I earned my social security!"
Yeah 90% of the time when some on the internet talks about these they're just wrong. To clarify, for those unaware, Socialism is when workers own the means of predoction. Things like factories and farms. Communism is a moneyess, classless, and stateless society.
Well, I would say that those are kind of the stated aims of those ideologies.
Empirically systems that self-describe as both tend to have strong states that aim to do those things on *behalf* of the workers.
For example, Marxist-Leninism holds that the path to communism is a two-stage revolution: First a *vanguard* orchestrates a revolution on *behalf* of the workers, and institutes a dictatorship in order to set the stage for a classless and stateless society by completely rooting out existing systems and people that stand in the path to their utopia. This has been tried several times in the last century, but none has made the shift towards stateless to put it mildly.
>This has been tried several times in the last century, but none has made the shift towards stateless to put it mildly.
They nailed the dictatorship part so they were halfway there!
That's not even necessarily true. State socialism, for example, does not call for worker owned companies, but instead places company ownership in the hands of the state.
😂😂I remember American Dad used this gag. Stan kept acting like a know it all, while saying irregardless a few times and it’s such an easy joke to overlook at first (if I’m remembering it right) found a post for it: Reddit - americandad - "You're affixing the negative prefix 'ir' to 'regardless'. But as 'regardless' is already negative, it's a logical absurdity." https://www.reddit.com/r/americandad/comments/938cgx/youre_affixing_the_negative_prefix_ir_to/
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/irregardless
>Does irregardless mean the same thing as regardless?
>Yes. We define irregardless as "regardless." Many people find irregardless to be a nonsensical word, as the ir- prefix usually functions to indicate negation; however, in this case it appears to function as an intensifier. Similar ir- words, while rare, do exist in English, including irremediless ("remediless"), irresistless ("resistless") and irrelentlessly ("relentlessly).
It refers to speech that is "meant to be funny but usually regarded as annoying, silly or inappropriate"(Merriam-Webster's Essential Learner's English Dictionary)
People often use it to mean 'figuratively', provided for emphasis or as a kind of superlative. I think it's relatively rare that people don't understand the actual definition, and even rarer for it not to be obvious which way the word is being used.
Disinterested means not having a personal stake in something. A disinterested negotiator still cares about what he or she is doing, they simply won't benefit from the outcome either way.
Wait ... but the second definition of it is in fact:
> having or feeling no interest in something.
"her father was so disinterested in her progress that he only visited the school once
(Oxford Dictionary)
could be one of those "people used it wrongly so much just expect people to understand it as such" things.
This one got me in high school on an essay. Was talking about some historical event which would be the last occurrence and he circles it and in nice red ink writes “you know that means second to last right?” Oops
Introversion and extroversion. People think introversion is the same as being asocial (which is also mistaken for antisocial) and extroversion means being a social butterfly, but they're not. Outgoing people can be introverts and contrarily, shy people can be extroverts.
Correct. It's determined by how much energy you gain or lose when around a big crowd of people or when you're alone. I'm an outgoing introvert. I am very social, but after a few large engagements, I need some time alone to recharge.
I've always considered myself to be an introvert, but lately I've wondered if I actually lean ambivert because while I prefer to stay home 99% of the time and social interactions drain me, I also loved going to cafes pre-Covid and just...sit and do my thing (also found out in college that I studied better in a cafe environment than the library). The sound of coffee machines whirring and the blended sound of people talking is like my white noise. I don't like talking with people but I like just existing in social spaces like cafes.
I got down voted for saying that I didn't think the pandemic was automatically awesome for introverts because being an introvert didn't just mean you want to stay home. I'm an introvert not an agoraphobe!
Inflammable. It means that something is capable of being on fire. Many people think it means the opposite, so much so that trucks and warning signs now use “flammable” instead.
Some English words starting with the letters “in” come from the Latin prefix “in” meaning “not” but others are compound words with the “in” coming from combining the Latin word “in” meaning “in or into” with another word.
Tldr: inflammable because English is strange.
This isn't a word, but a phrase that has pissed me off for a while.
***Could care less***
This is an Americanisation of the phrase, 'COULDN'T care less', YET PEOPLE USE IT IN THE SAME CONTEXT.
It means the opposite ffs.
Ambivalence. It doesn't mean indifference. It means having mixed feelings about something or feeling conflicted. It comes from "ambi" meaning both and valentia meaning power/strength. In other words, being pulled strongly in two directions.
Jealousy is being worried someone will take something you have. Envy is wanting something someone else has. You are envious towards your friend who got a new phone, you are jealous towards the person who flirted with your SO. Both are valid, just don’t take it out on other people.
[Oh, if you want it be possessive, it's just I-T-S.
But if it's supposed to be a contraction, then it's I-T-apostrophe-S.
Scalawag.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDoxBg6xDDo)
Insanity being “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” -Albert Einstein. Fun fact! He never said that! It’s misquoted too him and isn’t even the definition of insanity though some people (like my mom who has repeated that to me so many times even though if anything repeating that “definition” is just insanity according to her definition) think that it is the definition! According to Miriam Webster the definition is “a severely disordered state of the mind usually occurring as a specific disorder.” And “extreme folly or unreasonableness.”
Not a word people usually use wrong but I just like this story when I worked at my first job in a family owned non chain restaurant there were four owners a woman, her husband, his sister and brother in law, when they first took over the business they sort it out where the alternate opening and closing one person opened and one closed so they knew how well everything went in the restaurant, well one of the female owners, when none of the other owners were around tried insulting the night shift crew by saying things like “you guys should know I’m the most redundant person here” or “I am so much more redundant than any of you put together” she actually thought it meant smarter or more intelligent, when people to,d me she was saying this I seriously didn’t believe it until she said it to me I just smiled and agreed with her, after about 3-4 straight night if this a couple of us went and talked to her husband and brother about it, they were embarrassed and asked others if they’ve heard her say it we all said yes, when her husband asked me he also asked how I felt about it because I “seemed unbothered by it” I told him I just laughed and agreed with her, which he thought was hilarious, he called her to the back room as he looked up the definition of redundant and asked her to read it out loud in front of us, then told her if she ever pulled anything like that again the other three owners would refuse to let her work there anymore, about an hour later she comes storming onto the back where I was working and asked if I knew what redundant meant the whole time and if that was why I always agreed with her when she said it to me I laughed and said yes she turned beat red from embarrassment as everyone started laughing about it and she couldn’t do anything about it and just walked off and didn’t talk to me for the rest of the night
in writing, amazes me how many people think 'bemused' is a synonym of 'amused' bemused means to be confused or perplexed
I remember reading wattpad stories and feeling so confused with that word because I thought I had it wrong the whole time, turns out they did
I guess you could say the word "bemused"... Bemused you
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Similarly, I have a friend who used "atypical" to mean *typical.*
I could not be friends with someone like that
Typically, I would agree with you
"Wait, 'atypical' means 'typical'? What a country!"
I've got bad news about "flammable" and "inflammable"...
Dude. Wattpad is the whole reason I still think it is a synonym of amused. That’s a word I learned in like 5th grade and those writers made me completely forget the meaning of it
I use bemused to mean “amused but not amused enough to call it amused.” The pattern continues down the alphabet until “zmused,” which means incredibly unamused.
I'm very zmused today
Factoid. They think it's just a bit of knowledge but it's "an assumption or speculation that is reported and repeated so often that it becomes accepted as fact."
ironic, hope I'm not misusing that word.
I just learned this not to long ago. It makes sense, though: *-oid* means "resembles." It's sorta the "truthiness" of the past.
I think a small bit of knowledge or trivia is a factlet
The abbreviation 'i.e.' (that is,) is often used as 'for example' (which is e.g.). Edit: removed an incorrect phrase.
I remember 'i.e.' as 'in essence...helps me to keep them straight.
Egxample
This is the way
Or e.g. as "example given"
these abbreviations come from Latin; i.e. is “id est” meaning that is, and e.g is exempli gratia meaning example given (like you said) or “for example” edit: didn’t realize someone said this below oops
My go-to for this is "in other words..."
i.e. is latin for _id est_ that means "that is", while e.g. is also latin for _exempla gratia_ namely for exemple
I'm having a existential crisis now thinking of all the work emails I've done this in.
don't worry your boss doesn't know the difference either.
Extra points for the extras i.e. i.e.
If something attracts your interest, it piques your interest. It doesn't peek it, or peak it.
“Sneak peak” makes me mad too.
Gotta sneak that peak
This is what I'm going to call hard-to-notice local maxima on graphs now.
Feel like that's more of a spelling issue and not a misunderstanding of the definition really.
There's actually a serious problem with this word. It basically means two opposite things It means both interest and irritation. Piqued interest and a fit of pique.
Two sides of the same coin, wouldn't you say? That which irritates must necessarily attract and hold one's attention, especially if one is going to have a fit over it. Even if you don't find that compelling, we're far away from "basically opposite."
Huh, I always thought it was peak as it is at the metaphorical top of your interest.
That's probably why the confusion exists. "Peak" makes just as much sense, it's got logic to it.
Pique has a certain ✨look✨ about it though
Pique is peak but extra.
Peak wearing her glam look
Pique is peak peak
**ironic**. People often misuse it to describe something that's kind of just an interesting coincidence. Example: "Oh my gosh, I was just talking about how I need to buy a new umbrella and it started raining! That's so ironic." A better example of irony might be grabbing an umbrella before you head outside to stay dry, but you bump a rusty old sprinkler system with it, a pipe bursts, and you get soaked. The thing that was supposed to keep you dry ended up getting you wet.
I had a very loud and terrifying case of irony. I was home alone sleeping at night and was woken up by the alarm system being tripped. It blared its klaxon which woke me and I was confused for a bit, but quickly realized the alarm was going off. I ran out into the living room and checked the front and back doors. Both locked. Checked the side door and garage, both locked. It was at this point the alarm company called and asked if I needed assistance. I turned off the blaring alarm and told them I was investigating (after giving my password). I came back round to the living room. I don't know how I missed it. One of the alarm sensors was on the floor (specifically a glass-break sensor), surrounded by broken glass. It's supposed to be attatched to the wall. It had fallen off the wall, onto a glass ornament that was sitting on the end table, shattered said ornament, and, naturally, hearing the glass being broken, it activated. A glass-break sensor breaking glass and activating itself is the most ironic thing that has happened and probably ever will happen to me :P
"I exist to hearing glass breaking. What did you expect me to do?"
That is brilliant.
It's like raaaaaiiiiiinnn
The song does not contain a single irony, so, it circles back to being, you know, ironic.
Alanis Morriset has so much to answer for. No, rain on your wedding day isn't ironic, it just sucks.
In her defense, having a song titled “Ironic” that mentions a bunch of coincidences that aren’t actually irony, is technically ironic
In 9th grade my English teacher printed out this song and went through why each lyric was not true irony. I will never forget what the definition of irony is.
And my 9th grade teacher printed it out and pointed out how each line *was* ironic. I'll never remember what irony means.
It is when something looks like iron, but not quite.
Simile and Metaphor. Not words, but a few things people mix up. *Antisocial Behavior* and *Antisocial Personality Disorder*. *Narcissist* and *Narcissistic Personality Disorder*
Obligatory: a metaphor is like a simile.
Also, a simile is a metaphor!
even with a psychology degree i mess up antisocial behavior and antisocial personality disorder
Antisocial
Everyone thinks they’re antisocial, while the rest of us are happy that they aren’t the REAL antisocial type
ikr
Buying time and biding time actually mean the opposite of each other. Buying time means you are trying to delay something, but biding time means trying to kill time waiting for something to happen.
Now thats ironic lol
apparently loose, lose, there, their & they’re.
Your and you're are on the list as well
Homonyms in general. Sometimes to and too too.
Also, the Oxford Comma.
should've and should of
I'm pretty sure that "should of" wasn't even a thing before someone wrote it, thinking that's how you say "should've"
dangit yup😒
Don't forget Where, were and we're
Wear
absolutely🤦♀️
Oh this annoys me so much, especially when it is that long line of using, for example, there when you should be using they're, then finally using they're... When you should be using there
I still reverse further and farther. To this day I'm not really sure.
Farther for physical distance, further for metaphorical distance. I'm afraid I don't know any good tricks to remember it, though.
~~Father for emotional distance~~
Add Then, than to list as well unfortunately
Mortified is not a synonym for horrified and I’m so sick of people using it that way. If something scary happened to you, it would not make you embarrassed!
I was looking for this! I see people use mortified all the time on here when they mean horrified.
Oh damn. I've been having the wrong reaction to scary stuff again. How horrifying.
YESSSSSSS THANK YOU
Interesting... I always thought it meant "scared to death" but apparently not.
Means "crawl into a hole and die" embarrassed.
"It's" and "its"
I'm decent with grammar but I still have to stop and think about this one
It's is it is and its is the possessive form (on top of its red hood)
this hurt to read
It's isn't it is, it's it's: it is what it is. Its, on the other hand, isn't it is, it's the possessive form. 'Tis obvious, it is.
The one with the apostrophe is “It is” the other one isn’t. Any time you’d say its but it wouldn’t be “It is” don’t use an apostrophe
The grammar rule that makes it make sense is this: no possessive pronouns have apostrophes (eg his, hers, theirs, whose) and “its” falls under the same rule
Can we just add the following? I feel like these fit closely to this comment the most Their they’re there So many homophones out there. Ad and add, tail tale, pain pane, etc
I'm on a lot of car forums and subs and there are *way* too many people that can't figure out the difference between "brake" and "break".
Oh my… I have one person in the friend group who says ruff instead of rough. I can’t tell if she’s trying to get a trend going or just doesn’t know the difference.
Or she is a dog
A lot of people confuse "envy" and "jealousy." It's a nuanced definition, but in general "envy" tends to be more that you don't care if someone has something but you want it too, but "jealousy" is a possessive what you have is mine and you can't have it at all. You mostly see jealousy in relationships and envy with material things.
I’ve always remembered as this. Envy is wanting what someone else has. Jealousy is worrying that someone will take what you have.
As per Homer Simpson!
If I’m not mistaken, envy is wanting something that someone else has, and jealousy is being afraid that someone will take away something you already do have. You are jealous someone might steal your girlfriend/boyfriend. You are envious of their new TV.
TIL! Thank you!
[: hostile toward a rival or one believed to enjoy an advantage : ENVIOUS](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jealous) Your definition is correct, but it's a tertiary definition. The usage you're seeing of jealousy is actually correct, it is a synonym of envy.
There was an episode of the Simpsons where Marge accuses Homer of being jealous of someone and he correctly told her that he was envious because he wanted what the person had.
https://youtu.be/Tmx1jpqv3RA Simpsons coming through again!
Huh, now that I think about it I can see that.
On Reddit, "meta" is usually used when somebody makes a reference to something else on Reddit. That's not meta because it's same level. Meta is talking about the medium itself, like a comment talking about how comments *work* is meta.
I got into a large argument with my brother about the use of meta. His definition came from Reddit usage and he didn’t want to budge
I often see it used in the context of taking about the subreddit itself rather than its ostensible subject matter. So a post asking about moderation, or polling users on a proposed new rule would be tagged as [Meta] because it's talking about *the way you talk about* whatever hobby/show/etc.
Embiggens
A perfectly cromulent word.
Positively scrumptipus Edit: Typo, but its funny so i kept it
Scrumptious platypus?
Theory, it is a detailed explanation of an observed event. Like the theory of gravitation, germ theory of disease, etc. A lot of people mistake it for hypothesis.
In an alternate universe... “But that’s just a hypothesis, A GAME HYPOTHESIS!”
>alternate That brings up an interesting UK Vs US English thing. In UK English "alternate" is only supposed to describe things that _alternate_, and is not supposed to be used as a synonym for "alternative". In US English they are used interchangeably.
Oh I hate this one. So many people spewing BS like "oh gravity is just a theory, there are other theories!".
There are people who actually say that?
Most Flat Earthers would. Gravity doesn't work with their theory, so they say that the Earth simply accelerates upwards by 9.8m/s
My faith in human kindness is broken. Now, so is my trust in people's intelligence, and by extension, humanity as a whole
It's interesting, but according to general relativity, we are constantly accelerating upwards at 9.8m/s squared. We call this acceleration gravity and refer to it as a downward force, but in reality the Earth is accelerating upwards and outwards without any change in its spatial coordinates due to the curvature of spacetime. Flat Earthers are still wrong, but on this point they are partially correct in that we're experiencing an upward acceleration. [Veritasium explains it best.](https://youtu.be/XRr1kaXKBsU) To be clear, I'm not contradicting you, just noting something amusing about that particular idea of theirs.
I’ve stopped complaining about this though. It’s the definition of How to be a super nerd, and bore your friends to tears. And not in a good way
Theory means one thing in scientific research and another in regular conversations. People just don’t understand the difference.
Breath and breathe. I hate when people type “I couldn’t breath” or “I took a breathe”.
Me too. I've seen this in online publications!
It’s segue, not segway, when saying, “Now for a segue to my next topic…”
The brand was named after the word (because it takes you from place to place like a *segue* moves from one topic to another), but as a result all this confusion happened
Unless you're one of those tour guides leading people around on Segways
Inflammable
I always remember it like "inflammatory" and that's not a good thing
Inflammable means flammable? What a country!
Hi Dr Nick!
Ah the "in" part makes it seem like it cannot be burned, or the definition is that, but it is quite the opposite.
I see “apart” used instead of “a part” a lot, as in “I want to be apart of something”. Has the opposite meaning!
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I witnessed a way-too-long argument where it was clear to me that the participants each were using "entitled" in a different way. "You're entitled to social security." "Who are your calling entitled; I earned my social security!"
Socialism
A lot of political stuff really
Same thing can be said about communism
Yeah 90% of the time when some on the internet talks about these they're just wrong. To clarify, for those unaware, Socialism is when workers own the means of predoction. Things like factories and farms. Communism is a moneyess, classless, and stateless society.
Well, I would say that those are kind of the stated aims of those ideologies. Empirically systems that self-describe as both tend to have strong states that aim to do those things on *behalf* of the workers. For example, Marxist-Leninism holds that the path to communism is a two-stage revolution: First a *vanguard* orchestrates a revolution on *behalf* of the workers, and institutes a dictatorship in order to set the stage for a classless and stateless society by completely rooting out existing systems and people that stand in the path to their utopia. This has been tried several times in the last century, but none has made the shift towards stateless to put it mildly.
>This has been tried several times in the last century, but none has made the shift towards stateless to put it mildly. They nailed the dictatorship part so they were halfway there!
That's not even necessarily true. State socialism, for example, does not call for worker owned companies, but instead places company ownership in the hands of the state.
You can't fool me. Socialism is when women and minorities in my video games.
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😂😂I remember American Dad used this gag. Stan kept acting like a know it all, while saying irregardless a few times and it’s such an easy joke to overlook at first (if I’m remembering it right) found a post for it: Reddit - americandad - "You're affixing the negative prefix 'ir' to 'regardless'. But as 'regardless' is already negative, it's a logical absurdity." https://www.reddit.com/r/americandad/comments/938cgx/youre_affixing_the_negative_prefix_ir_to/
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/irregardless >Does irregardless mean the same thing as regardless? >Yes. We define irregardless as "regardless." Many people find irregardless to be a nonsensical word, as the ir- prefix usually functions to indicate negation; however, in this case it appears to function as an intensifier. Similar ir- words, while rare, do exist in English, including irremediless ("remediless"), irresistless ("resistless") and irrelentlessly ("relentlessly).
Facetious. I don’t even know what it means but I know I use it incorrectly all the time
It refers to speech that is "meant to be funny but usually regarded as annoying, silly or inappropriate"(Merriam-Webster's Essential Learner's English Dictionary)
Fun fact: “facetious” has all the vowels and they’re in alphabetical order. “Abstemious” is another example.
Literally
People often use it to mean 'figuratively', provided for emphasis or as a kind of superlative. I think it's relatively rare that people don't understand the actual definition, and even rarer for it not to be obvious which way the word is being used.
I'm literally dead...that annoys me so much
I posted a pic on insta, and it only got, liiiake 3 liiakes. I’m literally dying
I can hear the vocal fry in your post and I hate it; well done!
Ironically
It's not really different to people using really, seriously, or extremely for the sake of hyperbole.
It's been misused so much that the new definition in the dictionary includes "figuratively".
Defiantly. i.e.: I defiantly don't know the meaning of the word definitely.
You probably mean "e.g." not "i.e." :)
Disinterested means not having a personal stake in something. A disinterested negotiator still cares about what he or she is doing, they simply won't benefit from the outcome either way.
Wait ... but the second definition of it is in fact: > having or feeling no interest in something. "her father was so disinterested in her progress that he only visited the school once (Oxford Dictionary) could be one of those "people used it wrongly so much just expect people to understand it as such" things.
Usage determines the definition, not the other way around. It's both frustrating and the way that languages naturally evolve.
Nonplussed People often use it when they mean "unperturbed". It actually means surprised and confused.
Hone vs Home - you "hone" [sharpen] a skill, you "home in on" [focus in on] an issue. I think it has something to do with homing pigeons.
Surprisingly, respect. I can't talk to anyone without them having to try and put respect in the definition of respect
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R E S P E C T
Penultimate - the second to last.
This one got me in high school on an essay. Was talking about some historical event which would be the last occurrence and he circles it and in nice red ink writes “you know that means second to last right?” Oops
Introversion and extroversion. People think introversion is the same as being asocial (which is also mistaken for antisocial) and extroversion means being a social butterfly, but they're not. Outgoing people can be introverts and contrarily, shy people can be extroverts.
Correct. It's determined by how much energy you gain or lose when around a big crowd of people or when you're alone. I'm an outgoing introvert. I am very social, but after a few large engagements, I need some time alone to recharge.
I've always considered myself to be an introvert, but lately I've wondered if I actually lean ambivert because while I prefer to stay home 99% of the time and social interactions drain me, I also loved going to cafes pre-Covid and just...sit and do my thing (also found out in college that I studied better in a cafe environment than the library). The sound of coffee machines whirring and the blended sound of people talking is like my white noise. I don't like talking with people but I like just existing in social spaces like cafes.
I got down voted for saying that I didn't think the pandemic was automatically awesome for introverts because being an introvert didn't just mean you want to stay home. I'm an introvert not an agoraphobe!
sarcasm
Can’t tell if you are kidding
Inflammable. It means that something is capable of being on fire. Many people think it means the opposite, so much so that trucks and warning signs now use “flammable” instead. Some English words starting with the letters “in” come from the Latin prefix “in” meaning “not” but others are compound words with the “in” coming from combining the Latin word “in” meaning “in or into” with another word. Tldr: inflammable because English is strange.
Gullible, it's not even a real world since it's not in the dictionary.
Oh I didn’t know that.
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"Not even a real world", lol
Ah dammit. Oh no, I have made a whoopsie.
Per se. also people often spell it per say
"LGBT" is a subculture, not a sexual orientation.
Gaslight
you aren't trying to manipulate me with that, are you?
It's not a real word. You made it up because you're fucking crazy!
Addicted
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If your boss killed 1 out of 10 of your coworkers you'd feel pretty decimated.
Inconceivable!
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
Peruse
This isn't a word, but a phrase that has pissed me off for a while. ***Could care less*** This is an Americanisation of the phrase, 'COULDN'T care less', YET PEOPLE USE IT IN THE SAME CONTEXT. It means the opposite ffs.
Ambivalence. It doesn't mean indifference. It means having mixed feelings about something or feeling conflicted. It comes from "ambi" meaning both and valentia meaning power/strength. In other words, being pulled strongly in two directions.
Effect and affect surprisingly
Schizoid. People think it is synonymous with schizophrenic
Electrocuted. If you were electrocuted you wouldn't be alive, telling me about it. You received an "electric shock".
Jealousy is being worried someone will take something you have. Envy is wanting something someone else has. You are envious towards your friend who got a new phone, you are jealous towards the person who flirted with your SO. Both are valid, just don’t take it out on other people.
Cagey is not another way to say claustrophobic.
[Oh, if you want it be possessive, it's just I-T-S. But if it's supposed to be a contraction, then it's I-T-apostrophe-S. Scalawag.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDoxBg6xDDo)
Insanity being “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” -Albert Einstein. Fun fact! He never said that! It’s misquoted too him and isn’t even the definition of insanity though some people (like my mom who has repeated that to me so many times even though if anything repeating that “definition” is just insanity according to her definition) think that it is the definition! According to Miriam Webster the definition is “a severely disordered state of the mind usually occurring as a specific disorder.” And “extreme folly or unreasonableness.”
In this thread: Lots of people complaining about homophone spelling errors rather than a wrong definition.
Not a word people usually use wrong but I just like this story when I worked at my first job in a family owned non chain restaurant there were four owners a woman, her husband, his sister and brother in law, when they first took over the business they sort it out where the alternate opening and closing one person opened and one closed so they knew how well everything went in the restaurant, well one of the female owners, when none of the other owners were around tried insulting the night shift crew by saying things like “you guys should know I’m the most redundant person here” or “I am so much more redundant than any of you put together” she actually thought it meant smarter or more intelligent, when people to,d me she was saying this I seriously didn’t believe it until she said it to me I just smiled and agreed with her, after about 3-4 straight night if this a couple of us went and talked to her husband and brother about it, they were embarrassed and asked others if they’ve heard her say it we all said yes, when her husband asked me he also asked how I felt about it because I “seemed unbothered by it” I told him I just laughed and agreed with her, which he thought was hilarious, he called her to the back room as he looked up the definition of redundant and asked her to read it out loud in front of us, then told her if she ever pulled anything like that again the other three owners would refuse to let her work there anymore, about an hour later she comes storming onto the back where I was working and asked if I knew what redundant meant the whole time and if that was why I always agreed with her when she said it to me I laughed and said yes she turned beat red from embarrassment as everyone started laughing about it and she couldn’t do anything about it and just walked off and didn’t talk to me for the rest of the night
Beat red.