Is it ok to use? literally means “figurative”? F. Scott Fitzgerald did just that (“He literally shines”). James Joyce (“Lily, the caretaker’s daughter, really ran away”), WM Thackeray (“I’m really witty with intelligence”), Charlotte Brontë (“she brought me to myself”) , and continues to literally choke me with her unbridled spirit”) and others of their …
Meanwhile And While waiting can be used interchangeably, but While waiting is used more often as a noun, as in “in the meantime.” Meanwhile often used as an adverb, as in “in the meantime, we’ll order lunch.” There are plenty of words to learn on other pages of this site, but in the meantime, let’s …
Imagine the following situation: you are at a dinner party, or some other social gathering, and are explaining to a small child that Decemberthe twelfth month of the year, which is when holidays like Christmas and Hanukkah happen, when suddenly you are interrupted by someone who informs you that December in fact not the twelfth …
Most manuals will say you want to use between when referring to two people or things (‘sitting between John and Carol’) and between when referring to more than two people or things (‘students talk to each other’). But a more precise rule is to use between when you want to talk about the relationship of …
The trend of confusion censorship And reprimand likely stemming from the fact that both describe a limited action coming from an authority. It doesn’t help that either word can be used as a noun or a verb. ‘Censorship’ means deleting, blocking or interfering with another’s communications. On the other hand, ‘censorship’ means “to find fault …
Rules for choosing whether One or ONE should be used commonly memorized depending on whether the following word begins with a consonant (to use One) or a vowel (to use ONE). However, this is incomplete: these indefinite articles are used by the following sound, not the letter. So we say “a dog” and “a Balloon” …
For all intents and purposes, alternate And replace is synonymous. Both words date to the mid-16th century, and both describe a different choice from what was first suggested: an alternative perspective; an alternative suggestion. Commentators on usage often insist that ‘alternative’ should be used to mean ‘turn to happen or succeed’ and ‘alternative’ to mean …
full is a tricky word. And it’s also a word that represents a rare case where dictionaries have made the meaning of the word more confusing than clearer. full sounds like an emphatic way of saying “complete” or “complete”, and indeed in its oldest usage, dating back to the 1300s, it means “very complete and …
For a long time, writers were asked to avoid the phrase speak loudly. They were told it was a mistake against a well-established foundation. loudwhich has been a word in English since the 13th century. In contrast, speak loudly was a relative newcomer: it only began in the early 19th century. Lord Andover in the …
Change is inevitable in a living language; even the spines that cling to it, like lampreys, will change over time. The grumbling, whining and irritation around your grandparents’ English is often different from what you encounter today. For proof of this shift, we need look no further than the feelings people for much of the …
On September 8, 1966, one of the most influential TV shows of all time debuted. interstellar travel is still remembered for its memorable characters, imaginative plot, and daring disregard for the proper treatment of the infinitive of the verb “go”. For a long time, conjugated infinitives like “to bold go” were considered inappropriate—although some usage …
From official And official often confused, which makes sense, since we often have this habit with words that share the same beginning. But they don’t have to be so complicated, and by looking at the history of each word, it becomes quite simple to distinguish between them. As an adjective, ‘official’ means “of or relating …
A few years ago, the AP news agency announced that they were changing their stance on a certain issue in the use of English: Hope you’ll appreciate this style update, published at #aces2012. We now support the modern usage of the word hope: hope is so, we hope. – APStylebook (@APStylebook) April 17, 2012 The …
Regarding body positioning, easy to usually means lying face down, Lay up means lying on your back, and prostrate means to lie down, often submissive. The words also have other uses easy to can mean “tend to” and imply vulnerability, while Lay up suggests a “deliberate inactivity or indifference.” Meaning of Prone and Supine In …
Do you say “between you and me” or do you say “between you and me”? If this is the case, have you noticed people looking at you funny, walking away from you on the bus, or threatening to harm you? Because there are people out there who see this as a serious exception to this …
When choosing include or deduce A mistake will often be heard To give a suggestion Or mention it indirectly Include, imply is the favorite Include, imply has a number of meanings, but since most of the current ones relate to similar topics (indirect, suggestive, and potential), it tends to be used correctly. Deductive, however, is …
In today’s usage which And that thing both are used to introduce restrictive clauses that cannot be removed from the context of a sentence, and which also used to introduce unrestricted clauses, which provide additional information but can be removed without causing the sentence to split. These rules are actually older than the words, which …
In the early and mid-20th century, the manuals opposed isn’t it me? maybe because “not me” goes against traditional grammar rules. But the other options are Notdifficult to pronounce and Not, has long been rejected as non-standard. Today, isn’t it me? widely accepted and used like “I’m not”. What happens when a grammatical error commonly …
While the first presidential debate may seem like a distant memory at this point, there was one word in the course of the debate that confused many dictionary users. No no big or brag. It’s something a bit more opaque: .@realDonaldTrump: Clinton’s email server “wasn’t just a mistake; it was done on purpose.” #debate https://t.co/PEzzZIXRbO …
Verbs with the same sound careful And career often used interchangeably, to mean “to move at the highest speed”, often recklessly or out of control. The word ‘career’ comes from medieval horse tournaments, where it referred not only to races ridden by knights but also to the act of riding at a fast pace in …
If you happen to be friends with newspaper editors (as we happen to be), you will find that some of them have very strong opinions about phrases and phrases that you pay little attention to. . Sometimes they don’t like these phrases so strongly that you start to wonder if you should completely remove it …
Most verbs are what is called action verbs: they can express active actions, like run, swingor fly up; negative actions, like convulsion or chirp; or actions that require no movement at all, like think, imagineor digress. However, there are several other types of verbs and you use them all the time. A very common type …
Gun barrel lock is a noun that refers to the back of a gun muzzle or the back, or butt, of a person. Most people are familiar with “breeches” which means “pants”. Violation otherwise means “break or breach” such as “a breach of conduct” or “a breach in a dam.” One of our brave editors …
If you’re one of those people whose posts have been edited by others, you can sometimes get called out for using a comma, which is technically called a period or semicolon. It’s called a hyphen (or comma error, comma error, comma erroror don’t do it with a comma). (We made the last one, sorry.) And …
Notorious is a word that has a bad reputation due to its association with a lot of undesirable things. This word comes from the late Latin noun Ring tonemeans “information” or “indictment”, hence the word inquisitive mind, “come to know.” It was first used in the 16th century with a neutral meaning “widely known”, but …
Easy to spread disease is spread by contact, while Infectious diseases spread by infectious agents. Something that is “contagious” is by default “contagious” because contact exposes you to an infectious agent, but something that is contagious is not always contagious. You can get food poisoning, which is not contagious by itself. The flu season dwindles …
It sometimes seems like we base our English manual on the same principle of fairness that we use for quarrelsome kids. While this may have some limited effect when dealing with one’s progeny—“Now Billy, I know you wanted to be an astronaut for Halloween, but you chose a super costume. Hero and Clara have cherished …
We all know what a adjective is—it is “a word that describes a noun or a pronoun.” Most of us can feel comfortable modifying our adjectives. If we want to attribute a quality to a thing or a person, we approach our trusted adjectives and choose one; if we want to describe the person or …
At Merriam-Webster, we have several female editors. Or is it female editor? Are you sure female editorRight? There is now a distinction between using ‘woman’ and ‘female’ as modifiers, with some people preferring one over the other. If you get stuck, consider that it’s rarely necessary to say something like ‘female surgeon’; most of the …
ONE lede is the introduction in the press and thus to bury lead refers to hiding the most important and relevant parts of a story among other distracting information. spelling of lede supposed to not confuse it with command (/led/) refers to the metal strip that will separate the type lines. However, both spellings can …
In early 2016, the respected Associated Press added several entries to their style manual; Among these is the maxim that the word accident should be avoided when referring to automobile accidents in which negligence has been “claimed or proven”. Accident happened. And while the AP may object to the use of ‘accident’ in cases involving …
Are you worried about whether you can use worry does that mean eager? If that’s the case, we’ll now proceed to alleviate your discomfort. If you are not and have been mixing these words carelessly for many years, now we will continue to bring some anxiety to your former carefree existence. If you use ‘anxious’ …
Are you someone who decided to collect 8-track cassettes because LPs have become so popular? Do you enjoy worrying about other people’s language usage, but find that too many other people share the same interests? Do you need some new words that, when you come across them at a cocktail party, will allow you to …
On the battlefield, one should send in horseman, is a word for a military element that is ridden on horseback. Words spelled similarly turtle however, references to depictions of crucifixion, or more recently, the experience of emotional distress are often intense. When you find yourself facing difficult circumstances and seemingly endlessly hostile, do you figuratively …
Adjective don’t know is defined quite simply in the dictionary: “don’t know” or “don’t know anything”. This word is usually followed by belong to: “The hotel manager is don’t know about the problem with the elevator.” The common adverb form of the adjective ‘don’t know’ is ‘don’t know’. That’s not a mistake – it’s a …
Ancient is the correct term. Ancient means “firmly established,” as in “deep-rooted resentment,” but it also literally means “deeply below the surface.” It was from that sense that the figurative use of the word evolved. It is sometimes mistaken as worm seed. Some argue that troublesome words are at the more difficult end of the …
At first glance there seems to be very little information about this word couple may confuse anyone, or to which one may raise any objection. It was a simple little word, perhaps modest and without any great aspirations, but a laborer and stoic. But once you start considering the word, a real set of questions …
English doesn’t care if you’re happy or sad. It ignores your shrill pleas for an orderly and logical vocabulary. As proof of this supreme indifference, we need look no further than the words founder And flounderfor no language that cares about its speakers would allow this kind of semantic cruelty. ‘Founder’ means “sink” or “collapse” …
We meet the adjective forging in phrases like “wrought iron” and “fine wrought prose.” The word is defined with several meanings, among them being “formed with art or effort” and when referring to metal, “formed with a tool.” When combined with ‘up’, ‘trained’ can mean “to be deeply stirred” or “excited”, as in “easily agitated …
