- This tortuous, banal list is literally making me nauseous.
We all like to think that we know how to speak English perfectly well. Yet, the fact is that we often don’t.
Everybody makes mistakes when they speak, using a word that doesn’t mean what they think it does. We all do it and it’s usually no big deal in everyday conversations. That said, it’s good to be aware of what the words that come out of your mouth actually mean.
Misused words are so common that we’ve listed some of them before. Yet, there are many more out there, so here are another 10 words that don’t mean what you think they do.
Unless you do, in which case, congratulations — you’ve demonstrated your mastery over the horrible mess that is the English language!
1. Nauseous
When your stomach starts churning and you feel like throwing you, you might say you’re nauseous. However, the word you’re looking for is “nauseated.”
If something is nauseous, it’s making others feel queasy — which is probably the exact opposite of what you meant to say. Then again, if you do end up hurling, the sight of it might be nauseous to everyone around you.
2. Banal
People tend to use “banal” as a synonym for “boring” (perhaps when they’re trying to sound smart while complaining about, say, a movie). The two words don’t mean the same thing, though.
Banal things lack originality and are utterly derivative. For a perfect example of banality, think of the billion Hallmark Christmas romcoms that you can’t tell apart from each other.
In other words, banal things are typically boring, but things can also be boring when they’re not banal.
3. Empathy
Empathy, or being empathetic, is often confused with sympathy. Although they sound similar and are often used in similar situations, they aren’t synonyms.
When you feel sympathy, you feel sad or sorry for another person’s negative experience. But if you empathize with them, you know exactly what they’re going through on a deeply personal level.
So, if you’re just feeling sorry for someone, you feel sympathy. But if you’ve been in their shoes in the same situation, then empathy kicks in.
4. Fortuitous
“Oh, how fortuitous that I ran into you!” you might say after running to a friend you haven’t seen in ages — if you’re the kind of person to use the word “fortuitous” regularly. A lot of times, people in this scenario would mean they’ve been lucky to run into each other.
However, although “fortuitous” sounds like “fortune,” it has nothing to do with luck. If something is fortuitous, it happened by complete chance.
This means the meeting of the two friends was fortuitous. But it was also lucky.
5. Literally
The liberal use of “literally” in modern speech is the bane of many a word nerd. These days, people tend to use it to describe the exact opposite of what it means.
If you say, “I was literally crying,” you’d better have been bawling your eyes out. That’s because “literally” means “in a literal manner” or “exactly as described.”
If your eyes were actually dry, the word you’re looking for is “figuratively.”
6. Chronic
Now here’s a word we can’t really blame anyone for getting wrong. “Chronic” is medical jargon that you often hear misused even in hospital dramas, where you’d expect the characters to use it right.
Many people use “chronic” to describe severe pain or other conditions. However, chronic issues mean the problem is recurring, continuous, and ongoing.
The word for severe and sudden issues is “acute.” Seriously, go watch any TV show about hospitals and see how often they get these two words wrong.
7. Invariably
When people say something happens “invariably,” they often mean it happens frequently. However, invariable things are even more reliable than that.
Just think about that word—“in-variably.” Without variation.
Invariable things happen always, all the time. The sun shines, grass grows, and birds go tweet: these things are invariable.
8. Refute
“I refute that point!” a political candidate shouts during a debate. But unless they follow up by laying down some hard facts, they’ve refuted nothing.
We tend to use “refute” in the same sense as we would use “contest” or “reject.” What it actually means, though, is to objectively prove something to be false.
For instance, you could refute an accusation of not paying for your purchases by showing the receipt. Just saying someone’s opinion is stupid is not refuting it, because you haven’t proved jack.
9. Tortuous
You might think tortuous things are drawn-out, miserable experiences. But that’s because you’ve confused the word with “torturous.”
Tortuous things have many twists and turns, bends and loops. Think of a winding mountain road or an incredibly complicated explanation.
The latter might be torturous as well, though… What a difference one letter makes.
10. Momentarily
Have you ever told someone you’ll be with them momentarily? If you have, you probably didn’t mean what the dictionary says you did.
“Momentarily” means “for a short moment.” However, we tend to use it in the sense of “in a short moment.”
So, if you’re seeing someone momentarily, you’ll be with them for just a minute or two.
Bonus Entry: Irregardless
Few words cause as much controversy as “irregardless.” Many grammar enthusiasts will tell you that it’s simply not a word.
But it is a word. We just used it.
It’s a redundant non-standard word, though. “Irregardless” is a blend of “regardless” and “irrespective” which means more or less the same thing.
This is one of those weird cases where the word isn’t right, but it’s not really wrong, either. It’s unlikely that people will stop getting upset over “irregardless” any time soon, since it’s been making people angry since 1795.