{"id":21,"date":"2022-11-06T15:36:43","date_gmt":"2022-11-06T15:36:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vocabahead.com\/blog\/?page_id=21"},"modified":"2022-11-15T22:24:58","modified_gmt":"2022-11-15T22:24:58","slug":"11-words-that-dont-mean-what-you-think","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.vocabahead.com\/blog\/11-words-that-dont-mean-what-you-think\/","title":{"rendered":"11 Words That Don\u2019t Mean What You Think They Do"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Want to make sure you\u2019re someone who uses words exactly as they\u2019re intended? Or maybe you\u2019re the kind of person who secretly quite likes flexing your language knowledge and correcting people on their use of words<\/a>?!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re not here to judge! But we can point out 11 of the most commonly misunderstood words and what they actually mean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.Ambulance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We all know what an ambulance is, right? In fact, if you\u2019re ever injured in an accident, you\u2019ll be hoping one turns up quickly. The thing is; ambulances never used to be that quick \u2013 because the original ambulances were people carrying medical equipment on foot!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This explains where the term comes from. Ambulant means \u201cable to walk\u201d and is often used to describe patients in hospitals. Fortunately, the meaning of the term has shifted over the years and has now adapted to its new form – describing faster-moving life-saving vehicles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2.Barter<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Ever \u201cbartered\u201d over the cost of a new car? Chances are, you probably haven\u2019t \u2013 and that\u2019s not because you don\u2019t want a good deal. When you negotiate a price, you\u2019re actually \u201chaggling\u201c \u2013 making a low offer which is then countered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you \u201cbarter\u201c, you\u2019re offering to exchange services for the product you want. So, unless you\u2019re a craftsperson or service provider and you\u2019re willing to exchange your products or services for the car you like, you\u2019re almost certainly haggling!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3.Dilemma<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re unsure about a choice with multiple outcomes, chances are you\u2019re facing a \u201cproblem\u201c or a \u201cquandary\u201c rather than a dilemma. Why? Well, \u201cdi-\u201c means two, so, strictly speaking, a dilemma is a problem to which there are two possible outcomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance, if you\u2019re choosing between going to Harvard or Yale, you\u2019re facing a dilemma. If you\u2019re choosing from all possible colleges, you\u2019re facing a quandary. This goes further too \u2013 if you\u2019re choosing between Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, you\u2019ve got three choices, so you\u2019re facing a \u201ctrilemma\u201c! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

4.Electrocute<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Hopefully you\u2019ve never had an electric shock \u2013 but if you have, it wouldn\u2019t be accurate to say you were \u201celectrocuted\u201c by the toaster. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Electrocute is a type of word called a \u201cportmanteau\u201c \u2013 a word that takes fragments of two words to make a new word. The first part of \u201celectrocute\u201c is obviously from \u201celectric\u201c \u2013 but not many people realise that the \u201c-cute\u201c part comes from the word \u201cexecution\u201c. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As such, \u201celectrocute\u201c means \u201cexecute someone with an electric current\u201c \u2013 whereas getting a shock from the toaster is simply an \u201celectric shock\u201c. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

5.Factoid<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve come to understand that a \u201cfactoid\u201c is just a short fact and background information written down \u2013 but the truth is a little more murky than this. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The word was first used in 1973 to mean a previously non-existent \u201cfact\u201d that is created by the media which is designed to manipulate the emotions of the reader. By putting it in print, it becomes a \u201cfactoid\u201c \u2013 but today it would be more accurately described as \u201cfake news\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

6.Grizzly<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You may believe that a Grizzy Bear is so named because the people who first spotted the huge beasts used the word \u201chorrible\u201d to describe its size and temperament. This idea has really caught on \u2013 with the word \u201cgrizzly\u201c now commonly believed to mean \u201chorrible\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, the word \u201cgrizzly\u201d actually means that something is greying. Grizzy bears\u2019 hair is \u201cgrizzled\u201c \u2013 meaning greying or silver-tipped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Either way, it\u2019s probably best not to describe any elderly family member as \u201cgrizzly\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

7.Hone<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The word \u201chone\u201c tends to be misused because of an error with pronunciation. Hone actually means \u201cto sharpen\u201c \u2013 so you may very well hone a weapon, such as an axe. More commonly, you might \u201chone your senses\u201c or your wits by carefully concentrating on something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hone is often used in place of \u201chome\u201c when you \u201chome in\u201c on something. The similarity in meaning adds to the pronunciation confusion!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

8.Nonplussed<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Ever heard someone described as \u201cnonplussed\u201d about the idea of a party, holiday, or new job? Although you probably understand this to mean \u201cnot bothered\u201c or \u201cnot interested\u201c, it doesn\u2019t actually mean this at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The word has its origin with the Latin \u201cnon plus\u201c which means \u201cno more\u201c. In this context, the word literally means that you can take \u201cno more\u201c information about a subject \u2013 as otherwise you would be confused or overwhelmed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, if you are \u201cnonplussed\u201c \u2013 you may be interested but you cannot say or do anything else about a subject.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

9.Peruse<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If someone says they\u2019re going to \u201cperuse\u201c a menu, it generally means they\u2019re going to take a glance over it, perhaps quite casually. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite this casual use of the word, \u201cperuse\u201c means quite the opposite. If you were to \u201cperuse\u201d some legal documents or terms and conditions, you\u2019d be reading them in depth and taking in all the detail. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The actual meaning comes from the prefix \u201cper-\u201c \u2013 which actually means \u201cthoroughly\u201d or \u201ccompletely\u201d. With this in mind, you might have quite a wait on your hands if a fellow restaurant goes explains they want to \u201cperuse the menu\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

10.Refute<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Think you can \u201crefute\u201d someone\u2019s claim? If you\u2019re in a legal setting you should be careful how you use this word \u2013 because it doesn\u2019t mean simply that you reject it or deny that it\u2019s true. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, \u201crefute\u201d means that you can prove<\/strong> something is false. So, refute a claim in a court of law and you\u2019ll need to have some solid evidence to back you up!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

11.Regularly<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you do something frequently, you might think this qualifies as regularly. For example, if you go to yoga on Monday evening, some time on a Wednesday, and the occasional Saturday lunchtime, you might say you\u2019re \u201cregularly\u201d at yoga.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, if you subscribe to the strict meaning of the word, you wouldn\u2019t be a regular<\/em> yoga attendee. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regular actually means that you do something in a uniform or predictable way. So, if you go to yoga every other day at 7pm, then you\u2019re a \u201cregular\u201c yoga attendee. Got a less structured yoga regimen? Then you\u2019re a \u201cfrequent\u201d yoga-goer!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Want to make sure you\u2019re someone who uses words exactly as they\u2019re intended? Or maybe you\u2019re the kind of person who secretly quite likes flexing your language knowledge and correcting people on their use of words?! We\u2019re not here to judge! But we can point out 11 of the most commonly misunderstood words and what… <\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-21","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vocabahead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vocabahead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vocabahead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vocabahead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vocabahead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.vocabahead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38,"href":"https:\/\/www.vocabahead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/21\/revisions\/38"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vocabahead.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}