Do you know the meaning of this word?

[Missingmybabysomuch]

Just that really, my DD was doing descriptive writing at school about a fire. She wrote about "acrid" smoke and her teacher hadn't heard of the word and had to look it up. My DH hadn't heard of it either. It surprised me as I didn't think it was a particularly unknown word but now I'm doubting myself! So I just wanted a hive mind poll to see whether it's a word generally known or not.

YABU - It isn't a word I've come across before.

YANBU - I know what acrid means.

Same. We should probably get a firefighter calendar as well for research purposes.

YANBU, was she checking your daughter had not used AI?

One of my friends is a teacher and she regularly asks students to "teach" her something it shows the learner has bypassed the curriculum level and is working at a higher understanding.

I doubt it, my DD is only 6 and wrote it during a lesson in school. Good idea for how to check older ones haven't though!

I wouldn't expect a teacher to know the entire contents of the OED but I would expect them to have a well rounded education and therefore above average general knowledge. In my experience this is far from the case.

Comparing the grammar and spelling on MN is rather meaningless, unless you happen to know that this site consists of a high proportion of teachers.

To answer the original question, acrid is not an uncommon word and I would expect a teacher to know it.

My mother used to use it so many years ago and I feel I've always know that word.

What?????? Tell me this isn’t true!!

There can’t be many people who haven’t heard of Acrid. He’s one of the major characters!

I was in tears when the Ministry of Magic took him away.

Sounds like the teacher needs to read a bit more Potter.

I was going to say same - though one letter differences do often throw me due to my dyslexia though think context helps deserts are dry and smoke can smell bad.

Though I wasn't one of the offenders on King Charles thread last night confusing confusing prostrate and prostate - though did get paranoid enough to go back and check.

Sadly this is true.

My kids are older now, but we came across many many teachers who could not spell.

Having said that, my son’s year five teacher had atrocious spelling, but was probably the best teacher my kids have ever had. She believed in him and encouraged him, and I will take that over a rogue ‘definately’ any day.

😱 How embarrassing they had to admit that.

My Foster son has learning disabilities and attended a special school. He is cricket obsessed and watched every match of the IPL which I'd record for him and watch it after school. They had a teacher who decided they would learn about India. She showed them a map of India and asked if anyone know of any places in India. FS was 7 he went up and pointed out about 5 places. He knew this because when he watched the cricket programme on TV they showed a map of India and flagged up where the match was coming from that day e.g. Mumbai, Kalkotta or Rajasthan etc. This teacher then asked him what he knew about India. He told the teacher about the flying insects in Kalkotta and the intense heat and other stuff. She then decided he must have either lived there or been on holiday there. He told her no but she did not believe him. She just would not have it that he had never been there. She brought it up on Parents Evening and asked how long he had lived there. We told her he had never been there but she still seemed unconvinced. 🤷

My uni lecturer and most of the class didn’t know what ostensibly meant. Top ten uni in an Arts essay based subject.

@Lifeinlists, I’m well aware that at a higher level there would very likely be written work, but since my dds were only doing Home Economics for the required first 2 years of secondary school - a year of making an apron followed by a year of practical cookery - TBH I was not concerned that their Home Ec. teacher evidently did not know the difference between practice and practise.

Whilst it's certainly a word I've come across many times, I probably wouldn't use it myself in every day life .

Well done to your 6 year old DD for being able to use this word in her English lesson . That's way above the vocabulary in most books aimed at 6 year olds so she's done very well to recall and use that (assuming it was in the correct context).

That doesn’t surprise me either. I used to detest getting letters from the school addressed to “Parent’s and Carer’s”.

That's appalling! I hope you have corrected her!

How can she possibly teach?!

The standards are shocking.

I agree

'Would of' is deeply concerning/depressing. What hope do kids have if that's what they're being 'educated' with. I would expect a teacher to know acrid tbh.

Yes but I have two English degrees 🤣🤣

Would of/should of/could of are my pet peeves.

I once went in a visit to a different school (supposedly a showpiece) and, after the tour, the Deputy Head said 'You have all saw a lot of things today." I despair.

Lets hope it was a brain fart!

YANBU - I would have thought that this was pretty well known, especially in the context of describing the smoke!

I know a police trainer who says casual link when he means causal link. Never underestimate how poorly educated people can be

Oh don't. I had to virtually wrestle a red biro off a furious DH to stop him correcting all the SPAG on school letters and posting them back (DH went to a very brutal traditional boys' grammar school and his standards of SPAG are super high).