If so, upvote! If not, please name other oft-misused words in English. Or other languages, as well!
Is “decimate” the most misused word in the English language?
r/ask
If so, upvote! If not, please name other oft-misused words in English. Or other languages, as well!
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I’d argue that effect/affect are misused more.
I believe it is literally “literally”.
Words like narcissist are now just being used to describe anyone you disagree with.
On Reddit, it’s got to be “narcissist.”
How is decimate misused?
I’d say it’s the penultimate misused word, literally.
If you are thinking “decimate” is used improperly because it should mean kill 10 percent, you should know the #1 definition is “kill, destroy, or remove a large percentage or part of.”
It really annoys me that people can not use pacific words properly
Aggravate
Please enjoy this Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etymological_fallacy
Obliterate is pretty bad too
No, it’s “cringe”
Indubitably
peruse.
Whenever I hear someone use the term incorrectly my inner monologue screams, “10 percent! One-tenth! Deci, Latin, means tenth. Get it right!”
I’ve heard a lot of people misuse “exacerbate.”
“LEARNINGS”- it’s LESSONS, you corporate Muppets!!
Weary when they mean wary
Ironically when they mean incidentally
“hopefully” is up there
When I went to school, 50 years ago, we were penalized for using decimate in place of devastate.
I’d say it’s misused about 9 times out of 10.
In addition to spicy. Don’t get me started on misusing the word Spicy. Sigh.
Yes.
not a word but a phrase. i swear everyone says “i could care less” when it definitely is “i couldn’t care less”
Definitions change with usage. Decimate just means to destroy a large portion of something.
I always think of Adrian Monk when I hear this word.
Lately the news has been obsessed with “unprecedented.”
I think any word that starts as slang in a small % of population and moves to masses winds up being misused, and I just accept it
Boomer, gaslight, woke, and jerry being examples I don’t even use now. I hear them being used on news programs, when morning talk shows use them, my time expired
Irony. I blame Alanis Morisette.