You know what's annoying? When people use the term "literally", well, not literally. It kind of defeats the entire purpose of the word! I'm not the only person frustrated- this batch of Redditors also have a thing or two to say about misusing words.
u/JohnO500 asked: What words are misused the most and how?
Annoyances of having a pet snake.
"Is that snake poisonous?"
"Nope, sure is venomous though."
If you bite it and you die, it's poisonous.
If it bites you and you die, it's venomous.
Effect = noun.
GiphyAffect vs. Effect, a classic one! A lot of people still tend to confuse the two.
Affect is a verb ("He affected me badly"), while effect is a noun ("He had a bad effect on me")
Breathetaking.
Lots of people get the words Loose and Lose mixed up.
Your breathetaking.
10pm specific time.
Can you be more pacific?
"Specific time? Do you mean 10:00 Pacific time?"
"No, I think they mean it comes on specifically at 10."
-- A Family Guy bit I still remember
Kind've?
GiphyOf. It's would've, that comes from would HAVE, not would of.
I saw a Youtube comment that said, ''it's kind've strange that...'' last week.
The opposite of what you think it means.
Pseudo. It means false/fake, but people often use it to mean "sort of." The word they're looking for is "quasi."
Or how about "factoid". All too commonly confused for a literal fact, which it is literally not.
The more you know.
Literally has come to mean "figuratively".
While that's certainly annoying, it isn't as bad as it seems on the surface. The reason why people use "literally" to mean "figuratively, but stronger" is because the original meaning has been preserved. Without that base, the abuse wouldn't happen... which means that the abuse itself is still governed by the real definition.
A real pet peeve.
GiphyMy biggest pet peeve is the phrase "I could care less". THAT LITERALLY MEANS THE COMPLETE OPPOSITE OF WHAT YOU WANT TO SAY.
Saying I could care less means you care enough to be able to actually care even less than you do now.
I couldn't care less means you're at the bottom of that barrel and it can't sink lower.
THIS.
"Depression" "OCD"
Like my Psychology professor said the more you misused this word, the more it loses it's power as a symptom.
Yeah, and Bipolar is a serious mental illness, not just being indecisive/moody.
I'm wary of people who do this.
I see weary and wary misused on Reddit all the time, and less often I hear them being misused irl. They all sound similar, so I can see where the confusion comes from, but...
Weary is tired- you are weary from a long journey.
Wary is suspicious and cautious in regards to something- you should be wary of strangers with gifts.
People do that???
GiphyI hate it when people confuse the words fun and funny. It isn't even that hard but I always see stuff like "This amusement park was so funny!" and it is one of my pet peeves honestly.
An important distinction.
Empathy. People often mean they are sympathetic, and do not truly feel actual empathy.
Sympathy is to feel for someone.
Empathy is to put yourself in their shoes and truly understand.
It's called the UK.
England, people use 'England' to describe the UK, like Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are part of England.
Not awkward.
GiphyMy psychology teacher told us that anti-social is not the same as socially awkward. Anti-social is more like people that have absolutely no empathy for others. Like the school shooter type.
Not a word.
Anyways.
It is not a godd*mn word and I pulls me out of any conversation, movie, TV show, book, etc whenever I run across it. Anyway I try, I just can't get over it.
@tulipanet/Bluesky
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@phillip–rees/Bluesky
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