Eight words that may not mean what you think they mean

[WestleyAndButtockUp]

From this PR Daily website

Here are eight words (beyond "inconceivable") that may not mean what you think they mean:

1. Comprise

To comprise is to enclose or include. Comprise is used in the active voice; therefore, ?comprised of? is not correct. For example, The university comprises six colleges and nine divisions.

Comprise is often confused with compose, which means to make up or be a constituent of. Compose can be used in the passive voice. The company is composed of four employees.

1. Forgo

Forgo means to do without, bypass, or abstain from. It is often confused with forego (as in ?a foregone conclusion?), which means to precede. For instance, Liz was so engrossed in her book that she decided to forgo lunch and read instead.

1. Imply

Imply is often used incorrectly as a synonym for infer. To imply is to speak indirectly or suggest.You are implying that bank robbery is our only alternative. To infer is to surmise or conclude. I infer from your statement that you agree with this solution. Remember that one draws an inference.

1. Less

Less is often confused with fewer. Use less to refer to quantities that can?t be counted and fewer to refer to numbers.There were less people in the office today is incorrect, because people can be counted. Instead say: There were fewer people in the office today.

1. Literally

Literally means ?in the exact meaning of the word(s),? and use of this word permits no figurative use or exaggeration. For instance, this sentence?Editing that article literally killed me?means that you died at your desk.

[READ: Are you misusing the word ?literally??]

1. Poisonous

Poisonous?often confused with venomous?means a plant, animal, or substance capable of causing death or illness if taken into the body. Venomous means capable of injecting venom.

A rattlesnake is not itself poisonous, because if you eat one it won?t poison you. A blowfish will kill you if you eat it, so it is poisonous, but not venomous.

1. Precision

In science writing, precision is how close a set of measured values are to each other. Precision is often confused with accuracy, which means how close a measured value is to the true value. Confused? As explained on Mathisfun.com, ?If you are playing soccer and you always hit the left goal post instead of scoring, then you are not accurate, but you are precise!?

1. Unique

Unique means being the only one of its kind, unlike anything else. It does not mean simply ?unusual? or ?rare.? For example, something isn?t ?very unique.? It?s just unique.

As part of the tour, we were allowed to see the author?s unique existing handwritten manuscript.

According to the Oxford Dictionaries, unique is included in a set of adjectives whose meaning is absolute and cannot be modified by adverbs conveying degree, such as ?really,? ?quite,? or ?very.? Something is either unique or not; therefore, ?very unique? is meaningless. Other ?absolute adjectives? include complete, equal, infinite, and perfect.

Readers, care to share any other commonly misunderstood words?

Laura Hale Brockway an Austin-based writer and editor and is the author of the grammar/usage/random thoughts blog, impertinentremarks.com.

it's quite sad that they think people won't know what those mean. or it's sad that lots of people really don't.

there are words I have had to look up, but not any of those.

I looked up dour and ennui recently. Must say something about the company I'm keeping

Language is about shared or common meaning, not about what some book tells us!

If the message is delivered how it was intended then the communication was effective. If that method becomes the nom or standard, thn the silly book becomes out of date.

she should send that to every estate agent in the country... they can never say 'comprises' without an accompanying 'of'. And are often guilty of 'very unique' as well.

Starlight - up to a point. A message that leaves the recipient thinking 'yes, I wish you had literally died' or 'no, it isn't very unique, you daft mare, it's just rare' isn't effective communication.

I might quibble slightly with the "poisonous" one.

If you ate an entire rattlesnake it probably would kill you, because you'd eat its venom glands (which contain poisonous venom). So strictly speaking a rattlesnake does fit within the meaning of poisonous, and I expect most venomous animals also do, for the same reason.

Other commonly misunderstood words/phrases:

1. Beg the question

To "beg a question" means you've assumed the premise of the question is true, without it having been proved to be true.

People often use the phrase when they really mean "that raises the question".

The only one on that list that I could be guilty of misusing is precision/accuracy.

Fulsome.

A fulsome apology is not a full, wholehearted apology.

It is an overblown parody of an apology.

Something I find annoying is hearing (usually BBC radio journalists, as I see/hear hardly any other news) the incorrect use of who | which

I didn't hear an example yesterday, but it is happening more frequently than in the past.

Infamous

Used in the press to mean "very famous " rather than disgraceful. Cf Frankie Howard .

Great list. I love things like this.

I once pointed out a customer notice in tesco saying 'temporary out of stock'... The young chap i spoke to said ' well yeah we avnt got none in'.... And i bought cream from scholl that was labelled 'for course or dry skin' - the marketing dept sent me a huuuge box of products for highlighting this error :)

Can we add ambivalent and disinterested to the list? Often misunderstood.