List Of English Words With Disputed Usage
Some English words are often used in ways that are contentious between writers on usage and prescriptive commentators. The contentious usages are especially common in spoken English. While in some circles the usages below may make the speaker sound uneducated or illiterate, in other circles the more standard or more traditional usage may make the speaker sound stilted or pretentious.
| Abbrev. | Dictionary | Further details |
|---|---|---|
| AHD4 | American Heritage Dictionary | fourth edition |
| CHAMBERS | Chambers 21st Century Dictionary | 2006 |
| COD11 | Concise Oxford English Dictionary | 11th edition |
| COED | Compact Oxford English Dictionary | AskOxford.com |
| ENCARTA | Encarta World English Dictionary | online |
| FOWLER | The New Fowler's Modern English Usage | Revised Third Edition (1998) |
| M-W | Merriam-Webster | online |
| OED | Oxford English Dictionary | online |
| RH | Random House Unabridged Dictionary | 2006; at Dictionary.com |
| Contents: |
Top 0–9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
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Read more about List Of English Words With Disputed Usage: A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, L, M, N, O, P, Q, R, S, T, U, W
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“Thirty—the promise of a decade of loneliness, a thinning list of single men to know, a thinning brief-case of enthusiasm, thinning hair.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“I made a list of things I have
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but I see they are the same list.”
—Linda Pastan (b. 1932)
“While abroad, he met with a very salacious English woman, whose liberality retrieved his fortune, with several circumstances more to the honor of his vigor than his morals.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“We could not help contrasting the equanimity of Nature with the bustle and impatience of man. His words and actions presume always a crisis near at hand, but she is forever silent and unpretending.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I am using it [the word ‘perceive’] here in such a way that to say of an object that it is perceived does not entail saying that it exists in any sense at all. And this is a perfectly correct and familiar usage of the word.”
—A.J. (Alfred Jules)