15 Words That Dont Mean What You Think They Mean

1. Literally
What you think it means: A way to add emphasis to any sentence, as in: Justin Biebers
pants are literally the worst thing ever.
What it actually means: In a literal or strict sense, i.e., something that really happened,
without exaggeration or inaccuracy.
However, the Oxford English Dictionary admitted in 2011 that the common usage of
literally to add emphasis had become so widespread that it was forced to alter its
definition slightly.

2. Infer Vs. Imply
What you think: They mean the same thing.
What they actually mean: To infer is to form an opinion based on evidence and reasoning.
The listener infers. To imply is to express something in an indirect way without saying it
plainly. The speaker implies.

3. Occasionally
What people think it means: Rarely.
What it actually means: At infrequent or irregular intervals.

4. Reign Vs. Rein
What you think they mean: The same thing.
What they actually mean: To reign is to hold royal office. The Queen reigns over the
United Kingdom. Reins are things you use to walk a dog or harness a horse (hence the
phrase free rein, which means to hold a horses reins loosely).

5. Regularly
What you think it means: Sometimes; something that happens now and then.
What it actually means: Something that recurs at fixed times, especially with the same
space between individual instances.

6. Factoid
What you think it means: A fun fact of little consequence.
What it actually means: A fun fact that is not true.

7. Epicentro
What you think it means: The centre of something.
What it actually means: The point on the earths surface directly above the focus of an
earthquake.

8. Invariably
What you think it means: When something doesnt happen very often.
What it actually means: Something thats unchanging and constant, e.g., The football
season invariably starts in August.

9. Exponential
What you think it means: Very quick growth.
What it actually means: An increase in the rate of growth. Something is growing
exponentially when its rate of change can be described using an exponent, such as 103.

10. Enormity
What you think it means: Something thats very big.
What it actually means: The extreme scale, seriousness, or extent of something thats bad
or morally wrong. Can also mean a grave crime or sin. As in: We only just discovered the
enormity of the crimes he committed.

11. Palate Vs. Palette
What you think they mean: The same thing.
What they actually mean: The palate is the roof of the mouth and also a persons ability to
discern different flavours, while a palette is what an artist uses to mix paints.
Neither are to be confused with pallet, which is a wooden platform used to stack things.

12. Refute
What you think it means: To deny something.
What it actually means: To prove a statement or theory to be untrue.

13. Electrocute
What you think it means: To get an electric shock.
What it actually means: To injure or kill by electric shock.

14. Flounder Vs. Founder
What you think they mean: The same thing.
What they actually mean: To flounder is to be clumsy and indecisive, flopping around like
a fish out of water; to founder is to fill up with water and sink, or figuratively, to fail.

15. Ironic
What Alanis Morissette thinks it means: Anything mildly humorous.
What it actually means: Something that happens contrary to what is typically expected or
appropriate. Can apply to language, as when someone sarcastically says something but
means the opposite, such as: Justin Biebers pants look great.