While school may be a few years behind you, a linguist from Harvard University has created the definitive list of words and phrases that we misuse the most.
In his latest book, “The Sense of Style,” Harvard cognitive scientist and linguist Steven Pinker believes that these are just some of the words that people stumble over.
Pinker believes that there are 51 commonly misused words and phrases, here are just a select few from the list that caught our eye. In alphabetical order:
Adverse means detrimental and does not mean averse or disinclined.
Bemused means bewildered and does not mean amused.
Criteria is the plural, not the singular of criterion.
Disinterested means unbiased and does not mean uninterested.
Enormity means extreme evil and does not mean enormousness.
Fortuitous means coincidental or unplanned and does not mean fortunate.
Hone means to sharpen and does not mean to home in on or to converge upon.
Ironic means uncannily incongruent and does not mean inconvenient or unfortunate.
Literally means in actual fact and does not mean figuratively.
Mitigate means to alleviate and does not mean to militate or to provide reasons for.
New Age means spiritualistic, holistic and does not mean modern or futuristic.
Proscribe means to condemn, to forbid and does not mean to prescribe, to recommend, to direct.
Refute means to prove to be false and does not mean to allege to be false, to try to refute.
Tortuous means twisting and does not mean torturous.
Untenable means indefensible or unsustainable and does not mean painful or unbearable.
Verbal means in linguistic form and does not mean oral, spoken.
