The 6 Most Commonly Misused Words

defiantly and definitely should be up here

I am just so sick of people misusing the word "antisocial"----its like I hear it EVERYWHERE and they always use it to describe someone who is shy, introverted, or doesn't want to leave the house. A person with antisocial personality (assuming used in the context of a psychiatric disorder) is someone who has no regard for authority, law, or social norms (one could almost say they have no conscious). Many criminals are anti-social, but they definitely aren't introverted! These are the same people that torture animals when they are teenagers (I think this is actually one of the DSM-IV criteria--although didn't they publish DSM-V recently?) The old psychiatric terms were PSYCHOPATH and SOCIOPATH---how do you confuse that with someone who is shy?

Now you've done it! The English major in me won't stop! :)

Here are some more: "I LIE on the couch," "I LAY my pillow on the couch"; "I SIT on the couch," "I SET my pillow on the couch." Get it??? That song that goes "If I lie here, if I just lay here, would you lie with me and just forget the world?" drives me nuts!!

Christina Aguilera's song "Ain't No Other Man" is also wrong. Even ignoring the "ain't," when she says "ain't no other man but you," that's redundant. Just saying "ain't no other man" qualifies the man to whom she's singing as the only one for her. To say it the way she does actually sounds like she's saying "Besides Joe over there, there's no OTHER man for me, but you." It implies she's actually seeing two guys. (Yes, I know that's not what she means in the song, but that's what her misuse of language is saying.)

Irregardless is an informal term meaning regardless or irrespective, which has caused controversy since it first appeared in the early twentieth century. Most dictionaries list it as "incorrect" or "nonstandard".

IT is not proper and cancels itself out with the "ir"!

Actually, affect and effect aren't quite that simple. Both can be either verbs or nouns, but with different definitions. If you use effect as a verb, it means that the outcome was directly caused; with affect, the outcome is just influenced. "I effected the result" means I made the result happen, whereas "I affected the result" means that I contributed to the result, but not fully or directly. A subtle difference, but distinct. Affect as a noun, on the other hand, is currently only in use as a technical term in psychiatry and psychology, meaning, roughly, emotion. In the most common usage, however, affect is a verb and effect a noun.
Also, for those discussing literally, I love the way Randall Monroe put it: http://www.xkcd.com/725/

Yeah, well about people who can't distinguish between To, Too or Two. And switch and match the three....so ugly to meet someone who cannot use the language properly!

Just a question here. For how long does 90% of the population have to use a word for it to become correct? Its a fact that language evolves.

Jett, according to dictionary.com and merriam-websters, often is pronouned both ways.

one of my biggest pet peeves, and i'm not surprised it hasn't been mentioned yet, is the misuse of "quote" and "quotation." ...."quote" is a *verb* and "quotation" is a *noun"... you QUOTE a QUOTATION, you do not quote a quote! i hate it! ((are you listening out there, news anchors??))

and people using "alum" for alumnus...i thought it was a chemical compound...

For the more common daily chat, these words come to mind: Unthaw and Kleenex.
To unthaw something is to refreeze it!
Of course Kleenex speaks to the use of a tradename and not the product itself. If someone brought back anything other than a tissue when asked for a Kleenex, say a diaper or roll of toilet paper that is made by Kleenex, they would assume your ignorance, not their own.

"literally" .......... this has to be the most over-used word of all time! Most people apparently have no idea what this word really means, and when to use it, or they wouldn't use it CONSTANTLY !

How about 'a savings'? Used all the time in TV commercials, where you'd think they had the time and money to check the difference between right and wrong. However, the prize still goes to the misuse of the apostrophe, especially in simple plurals. How can anyone think 'banana's' is spelled with an apostrophe? I'm expecting any day now to see 'a saving's'.

Now if we could just get the population to understand when to use to; too; and two, and the ever popular its and it's.

That and spelling. Please people! No more, "I use to do that," It's "used"!!! All sorts of things like that. Lets be literate!

ARRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!

Affect and effect are really not confusing at all. Affect is a verb, and effect is a noun. The weather will affect my plans. That article had an effect on me. It really bothers me when people misuse those.

Lose and loose are the worst. I just saw someone today trying to call people "loosers". I can't take someone seriously if they can't tell the difference between two completely unrelated words.

"I could care less" annoys me too. You're saying the exact opposite of what you think you're saying!

"Literally" is another that's the opposite of what you think you're saying. "There was literally steam coming out of my ears." Yeah, sure. It's always annoying when people try to sound smart and fail completely.

I take issue with "random", though. People don't use it as a synonym for strange or unknown; they're saying a random person in the street came up to them. I don't think it matters whether the person had a purpose or not; he IS a random member of the crowd to you.

Yeah... but Hab, effect and affect are confusing and there are certian circumstances where they are interchangable... ;)

I got to grammar girl all the time to review how to use them... :D

I was hoping to see awesome on this list!

Posted by 43 minutes ago
"I could care less" annoys me too. You're saying the exact opposite of what you think you're saying!

That is really the one that gets me the most...................SO TRUE!!!!

It is, "I could NOT care less about something'.....MEANING you don't care, instead of, "I care so much that I couldn't care less"..............................this is so tough!!!

Oh hell whatever.

To the person who added "I use to do that": yes! People do the same thing with "supposed". You're supposed to do something, not "suppose" to do it. And how about "could of"? NO!!!! It's "could have", "would have", "should have", not of.

Frick: YES! That one bugs me too!!